The BYU women’s basketball team lost 68–55 on the road to Loyola Marymount on Thursday night after a poor second half shooting effort.
The Cougars (19–9) fall to 10–5 in the West Coast Conference and are now in fourth place. The Lions (11–17) improve to 5–10 in the WCC after this huge win at home.
“We weren’t ready to play, especially in the second half,” BYU coach Jeff Judkins said. “We lost our intensity, especially on defense. We didn’t make the plays we needed to and you can’t do that on the road.”
The first half was strong for the Cougars, especially for junior Stephanie Seaborn. She scored 16 points in the first half, 12 of those points coming from beyond the arc. She ended the night with those points, however. Seaborn did not make a field goal in the second half. She ended the night shooting 33 percent.
Three-point shooting was strong in the first half for BYU. The Cougars made nine treys in the first half alone. They ended with 11 on the night, tying for the most in a WCC game to date. Aside from Seaborn’s four three-pointers, Haley Steed, Kim Beeston and Kylie Maeda also made a few treys each.
The difference between the first and second halves are evident in the shooting percentages for the Cougars. In the first half, BYU shot 45.2 percent, but in the second half they fell to 25 percent shooting. LMU stayed somewhat consistent in both halves, ending the game with 41.5 percent.
The Cougars narrowly outrebounded the Lions 36–35, led by Jennifer Hamson’s 11 rebounds. Keilani Unga added eight rebounds, including five offensive rebounds to help spark the offense.
Seaborn led all players with six assists on the night, three more than the national leader in assists, Steed. BYU ended the game with four more assists than LMU. The leadership from Seaborn in the first half is a good sign for the Cougars. Next year she will be a senior and will need to help lead the team in any way that she can.
Aside from the Cougars’ shooting percentage, another statistic that hurt them were turnovers. BYU had 17 turnovers. LMU only had nine.
The balanced scoring seemed to have left BYU as LMU had three players score in double figures, one of those players coming off of the bench. BYU only had two players in double figures (Seaborn and Steed).
It was a successful senior night for LMU. Senior Alex Cowling scored 21 points to break the WCC all time scoring record. Deanna Johnson led all scorers with 24 points. Chelsea Barnes had a double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 12 rebounds.
BYU finishes its road trip in Portland on Saturday in its last WCC game of the season.
