The BYU women’s basketball team earned a win in their season opener against in-state rival Weber State Friday afternoon, with a final score of 80-55.
“We came out and executed well tonight,” Head Coach Jeff Judkins said in a press release Friday night. “We did a good job of moving the ball and did a good job defending their pick and roll game. I was happy with the way we played and we’re looking forward to getting better and for the games next week. Lexi played very well in the first half and the bench gave us a lot of support tonight, especially Kylie (Maeda) who was playing in her first game.”
Sophomore guard Lexi Eaton lead the Cougars in baskets scoring 24 points for the team, while junior guard Kim Parker Beeston shelled out three 3-point shots and lead the team in 3-pointers.
The team however struggled defensively when it came to rebounding. Leaders in rebounding were sophomore forward Morgan Bailey with seven rebounds and junior forward Stephanie Seaborn with six rebounds.
“I’ve just got to constantly stay on them,” Judkins said. “When Jen (Hamson) is not there, that’s our biggest weakness, when Jen’s there and she gets a lot of rebounds none of the other people have to do it.”
Judkins gave praise to freshman guard Kylie Maeda for having played well in her first game and believes she will be a very good player as the season continues.
“(Maeda) settled down and played a really solid game,” Judkins said. “To me, she ran the team just as good as Haley (Steed) did, so that’s a real positive thing. She’s quick, we saw some really nice defensive plays by her tonight. She pressured the ball better than anybody on our team tonight, those are some real positive things and I think she’ll get better.”
Maeda is very grateful to have returning senior Haley Steed to learn from and gain good advice on how to succeed.
“It’s been so helpful (to learn from Haley),” Maeda said. “I’m so glad she’s here, it’s still overwhelming for me, but to have her here to be able to teach me and go through things with me is so helpful.”
The Cougars finished the first half with a leading score of 42-25, in the second half they scored another 38 points, not quite doubling their score. Weber State however, was able to double their score plus some in the second half.
“I think we started to get satisfied,” Eaton said. “It’s easy to let that happen, but we should know better because we have experience, so we should have done better. That’s okay though, we’ll build off of it and learn from it.”
Next up the team heads to New Hampshire Tuesday to play Dartmouth at 3 p.m.
