The BYU women’s basketball team will travel to play Santa Clara on Saturday for their sixth West Coast Conference game of the season.
BYU (14–6, 5–2) is looking to build off of its big win against St. Mary’s on Thursday night in the Marriott Center. The Cougars defeated the Gaels 66–58 and were led by guards Haley Steed and Kim Beeston’s 14 point efforts. Keilani Unga also contributed 13 points and a lot of toughness in the Cougars’ victory.
“We needed this so bad to just build our confidence as a team,” Unga said. “So now we can just have confidence in one another and in our coaches that when we go to Santa Clara that we’re just going to take this momentum and keep going.”
The Broncos (12–9, 4–4) will be coming off of a loss to San Diego on the road. Santa Clara lost 48–59 while shooting 33 percent from the field and going 2–17 from beyond the arc. Santa Clara was led by forward Lindsay Leo who scored 15 points and had four blocks.
“We’re going to have a really tough game on Saturday,” BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. “Santa Clara is a really good team.”
The Cougars, who have struggled with rebounding recently will have their hands full with Lindsay Leo. The 6’2” forward averages 7.3 rebounds. Leo grabbed six rebounds in the Broncos’ loss on Thursday, but they were still out rebounded 46–34 by Toreros.
BYU’s top rebounder is Jennifer Hamson. She averages 7.6 rebounds, but she grabbed eight rebounds in the Cougars’ win over the Gael’s on Thursday. Despite Hamson’s eight rebounds and the victory, BYU was out-rebounded by St. Mary’s 48–36. The Cougars have earned more rebounds than their opponents in 13 games this season.
“Our bigs are good rebounders,” Judkins said. “But they’re not great rebounders yet.”
Last season, the Cougars swept the Broncos in their two meetings. In both of the BYU victories, five of the Cougars scored in double figures. This season, BYU has yet to have five of its players score in double figures, but four have scored in double figures in three games and three have scored in double figures in nine games.
BYU will tip-off against Santa Clara on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. PST in the Leavey Event Center. Fans can listen in on BYU radio.
