By Courtney Carlston
Last week”s tournament games proved to be challenging competition for the BYU women”s basketball team as they faced Clemson, No. 22 Texas Christian University and Northeast Conference team Mount St. Mary”s.
The Cougars started their Thanksgiving break at the Great Alaska Shootout, where they finished in third place.
In the first game of the Shootout against Clemson, BYU forward Ambrosia Anderson came off the bench to pace BYU with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
Clemson took an early lead before BYU came back to grab a 27-25 advantage with 3:11 left in the first half. However, it wasn”t enough to maintain the lead, as the Lady Tigers went on a 6-0 run at the end of the half.
In the final three minutes, BYU twice cut the lead to two points, but was unable to pull ahead when Clemson sunk five of six free throws to secure the win at 62-56.
The Cougars returned to the tournament on Wednesday, Nov. 26 with renewed energy and strength to score a 70-47 victory over Mount St. Mary”s in the consolation game.
BYU gained the lead early in the game as sophomore guard Nancy Seljaas hit five three-pointers for 15 of her 16 points in the first half. The Cougars had been up by as many as 19 points, and took an 18-point, 41-23 lead by the end of the first 20 minutes.
“I”m happy with what”s going on with our team at this point,” BYU coach Jeff Judkins said in a release. “We had key players step it up when they needed to and that was positive for us. Some nights it might be one player, another night someone different and that”s okay as long as it keeps happening.”
BYU forward Danielle Cheesman had a game high of 18 points and 12 rebounds. Cheesman also shot a perfect 8-8 from the foul line.
Guard Myrium Baccouche led the Mountaineers with 13 points and eight rebounds, and forward Jilian Franklin followed with a team high of 11 rebounds. It was the Mountaineers” third straight loss after losing by two points to host Alaska Anchorage on Tuesday night.
With the recent victory, the Cougars returned home to host TCU at the Marriott Center on Saturday afternoon. Anderson scored 21 points and grabbed 11 rebounds for her second career double-double, and Cheesman added 20 points and seven boards, but it wasn”t enough to defeat the Lady Frogs.
With 1:18 left in the first half, the Cougars cut the Lady Frogs” lead to five points, but TCU quickly redeemed its 10-point advantage before the half ended.
Judkins said his team struggled with TCU”s pressure defense early in the game, but improved as the game went on.
TCU”s Amy Pack and Sandra Irvin started the second half with 11 points to give the Lady Frogs their biggest lead of the game at 64-49 with under 12 minutes to go.
Following a basket by Cheesman, the Cougars countered with a 12-2 run with 6:50 left in the game. The Cougars fought back to cut the 15-point lead to two points.
BYU guard Julie Sullivan had a chance to tie the score at 75 with 30 seconds remaining but went 1-2 at the line. TCU”s Pack and Ebony Shaw both hit two free throws to preserve the 79-74 win.
“It”s hard to take the loss,” Judkins said in a release. “But it”s better for us in the long run to play a team like TCU and lose because we learned a lot about our team today.”
BYU returns to the court to play University of Nevada-Reno in Reno on Tuesday, Dec. 2 at 7 p.m.
