Makenzi Morrison Pulsipher takes the ball down the court in the game against UVU. Pulsipher scored 18 points to contribute to the Cougars win against Texas A&M Saturday night in Hawaii. (Ari Davis)
The BYU women's basketball team couldn't lose in Hawaii this weekend and won its final game 72-64 against Texas A&M to take home the gold.
The Cougars' defense held strong tonight against No. 12 Texas A&M Aggies and held their opponent to 64 points instead of their usual 80 points per game average. It was a close game through all four quarters, but the Cougars maintained a seven-point lead for the majority of the game. The biggest gap was a 10 point lead for the Cougars in the third quarter and the Aggies closed the gap to a one-point lead for a minute near the end of the fourth quarter. The Cougars also held the Aggies two best scorers Courtney Williams and Courtney Walker to eight and 11 points respectively.
The Aggies only had three turnovers in the whole game yesterday against the University of Hawaii and the Cougars forced 19 turnovers tonight and scored 15 points off of those turnovers.
Lexi Eaton Rydalch was named the Tom Weston Classic Invitational MVP and led the Cougars scoring 28 points against the Aggies. Kalani Purcell has been a solid contributor for the Cougars and she scored her third double-double in a row with 12 points and 10 rebounds for the night. Makenzi Morrison Pulsipher contributed 16 points for the win against the Aggies and was the second high scorer for the Cougars.
Tonight's game was the first time in program history that the Cougars saw a match-up against the Texas A&M Aggies and they proved themselves able to beat the number twelve team in the country.
The Cougars come back to Utah next week to battle Weber State on Thursday, Dec. 10 in Ogden and then they will host their final non-conference game on Saturday, Dec. 12 at 2 p.m. against Utah.