The BYU women’s basketball team pulled away in the second half to beat the Weber State Wildcats 68-51 for their fifth road win in a row.
The Cougars started the game strong with an immediate 11 point lead, but the Wildcats fought back for an interesting second quarter battle.
The second quarter was a back-and-forth game and the lead changed seven times in that period. BYU hit a momentum-changing 3-pointer at the end of the second quarter that carried them through the second half and onto another victory in Ogden.
“When we move the ball, we’re good.” head coach Jeff Judkins said. “Scoring 23 points in the third quarter was big for us.”
BYU forward and Ogden native Amanda Wayment shined in front of her hometown crowd tonight. She put eight points on the board and came down with 10 rebounds. She tied her career-high points and set a new career high for rebounds. Wayment is a sophomore at BYU and has consistently put the ball in the hoop for the Cougars.
“I think it is just sticking with my role,” Wayment said. “I’m a good screener and usually if I set a good screen I’ll get myself open and my teammates will hit me and I just try to finish from there.”
Freshman Jasmine Moody started the game for the Cougars and scored a career high of 11 points and pulled down four rebounds. Kylie Maeda ended with a season-high of 10 points while Lexi Eaton Rydalch came out with only four points in the first half and a whopping 21 points in the second half to contribute a total of 25 points. Rydalch has averaged 23 points per game so far this season and the Cougars have averaged 67 points a game.
The Wildcats held strong defensively and forced 14 turnovers from the Cougars and scored 18 points off of those turnovers, however, BYU was not far behind forcing 11 Wildcat turnovers. The Cougars really stepped it up tonight under the hoop and pulled down 11 offensive rebounds and 41 rebounds total compared to the Wildcats’ 24 rebounds for the night.
“It’s all about aggressiveness with rebounding” Wayment said.
Overall the Wildcat’s shot 37 percent from the field compared to the Cougars’ 51 percent.
The Cougars secured a 17-point win over the Wildcats for their fifth road win in a row. The Cougars finally return home Saturday, Dec. 12 with a 7-3 preseason record. They will host the Utah Utes at 2 p.m. in what is sure to be another great rivalry game.
“I think the Utah game we’ll be up for and I hope we get a good crowd, let’s get a good crowd,” Judkins said. “We deserve it, we’re playing good basketball and hopefully we can be on top.”
