Another big game by senior Jennifer Hamson propelled the BYU women’s basketball team to a 73-66 victory over San Francisco on Saturday.
Hamson finished with her fourth straight double-double, scoring a game-high 25 points and grabbing 13 rebounds as well as blocking eight shots. Sophomore Lexi Eaton poured in 19 points, five rebounds, and four assists.
“I’m really proud of these girls,” BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. “This was a tough trip after being on the road for two weeks now. We made defensive plays when we needed to and were able to get the ball into Jen in the post. She made some big baskets for us when they were trying to make runs down the stretch.”
Sophomore point guard Kylie Maeda had 13 points for the Cougars. She had a perfect shooting night, going 4-4 from the field and 4-4 from the free throw line, which marked her second straight game shooting a perfect 100 percent from the charity stripe. Maeda also contributed three rebounds and a team-high five assists.
“I really thought Kylie did a great job of attacking the rim today,” Judkins said. “She gave us one more option to score when they tried to key on Jen or Lexi.”
BYU (19-5, 9-4) had a slow start against San Francisco (9-15, 4-9), with the score tied 33-33 at the end of the first half. The Cougars couldn’t shake the Dons as they traded points through a close second half, until Maeda and Hamson sealed the 73-66 victory with two sets of made free throws in the closing minute of the game.
The win provides BYU momentum going into the home stretch of conference play, bumping them up into second place in the West Coast Conference behind No. 15 Gonzaga.
The Cougars will be back home in the Marriott Center Thursday Feb. 13 at 7:00 p.m. MST hosting Portland, and again Feb. 15 at 2:00 p.m. MST against Gonzaga. Both games will be broadcast live on BYUtv.
