BYU women’s basketball downed the Portland Pilots on a last-second basket Feb. 26.
Morgan Bailey led all scorers with 17 points and 12 rebounds despite getting injured in the game last week against San Diego. “I hurt my ankle last week, but I was feeling good, so Coach kept me in,” Bailey said.
BYU’s bench players were key to the win. Cassie Broadhead brought four points and scored the game-winning point for the Cougars. Kristine Fuller and Alohi Robins-Hardy each had three points.
The Cougars were down for most of the first half but cut into Portland’s lead with three consecutive scoring possessions. Fuller hit a 3-pointer off of a pass from Robins-Hardy. Bailey followed with a jump shot from outside, and Eaton drove to the basket for a layup to bring the Cougars within one.
Bailey made a layup after Maeda drew two defenders to her on a drive to the basket, which put the Cougars up 32-29 to end the half.
Morrison faked a three-point shot and went in for the layup for the Cougars’ first basket of the second half. Portland came out into the second half on fire and went on a 10-5 run.
The Cougars began to kick the ball into Bailey, which forced Portland to come and double- or triple-team her. Bailey found open shooters, and the Cougars hit their shots to put them up by 10 with 6:03 left. “If we didn’t have Bailey on the inside we wouldn’t be able to move the ball around as well as we did,” Broadhead said.
Portland chipped away at the lead and was able to tie the game with 13 seconds left in the game.
“We had a defensive lapse, and that is what let them come back,” Bailey said.
The Cougars brought the ball down and gave it to Broadhead, who drove to the basket with three seconds left and was fouled on the layup. She made both shots to give the Cougars a two-point lead with 1.3 seconds left. A Cougar player deflected the ball out of bounds with 0.8 seconds left, but the Cougars were able to hold on defensively and win 65-63.
“Cassie did a great job making it to the basket,” head coach Jeff Judkins said. “She really pulled through making the free-throws, because it is tough to make those when there is only 1.3 seconds left on the clock.”
