The BYU women’s basketball team dropped a tough conference game to the University of San Diego 60-45 at the Jenny Craig Pavilion in San Diego.
Turnovers proved to be the downfall for the Cougars, who gave it up 28 times in the game, accounting for 21 of the Toreros’ points.
“San Diego’s pressure really hurt us,” BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. “You can’t turn over the ball as much as we did and expect to win. We didn’t do a good job at getting the ball where we needed it to have an opportunity to score. This will be a learning opportunity for us as we continue through conference play.”
San Diego’s energetic defense held BYU star senior Jennifer Hamson to just 3 points on 1-1 shooting from the field. Hamson, however, dominated the boards, tying her career high with 17 rebounds. She also added a team-high five blocks.
Sophomore Lexi Eaton led the way for the Cougars with 16 points, sinking 7-8 from the free throw line. Senior Kim Beeston added 12 points while shooting 50 percent from beyond the arc.
BYU (14-4, 4-3) led most of the game until San Diego (16-2, 5-2) started to gain momentum in the second half. The Toreros got their first lead of the game at the beginning of the second half to make the score 35-33. San Diego then went on a big run to jump out to a 13 point lead with five minutes to go. Senior Kim Beeston hit a big 3-pointer around the 4:30 mark, but the Cougars couldn’t come any closer as the Toreros pulled away to record their first win against BYU since the series started.
The loss puts BYU in fourth place in the West coast Conference standings. The Cougars will be back home at the Marriott Center next week to face San Francisco Thursday, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. MST.
