BYU women’s basketball falls 79-66 in road clash with Pacific
Nani Falatea scored a career-high 27 points Saturday against Pacific, but it wouldn’t be enough, as BYU women’s basketball suffered a 79-66 loss on the road.
The Cougars went into Stockton having won eight of the past nine games, but the Tigers were eager to get a win on their schedule as they had lost their previous five straight games.
Falatea shot 9-for-19 from the field, including 6-for-12 from deep. The sophomore from Salt Lake City also hauled in five steals as well as two assists and two rebounds.
While Falatea did lead the team in scoring, she didn’t receive much help from her teammates offensively, especially from BYU star Lauren Gustin, who scored just eight points in the game to mark her second-lowest scoring output and second time that she has not finished with a double-double this season.
A big reason for the non-contribution from Gustin was the excellent defense in the paint led by second-time starter and junior Forward Rosie Schweizer. The Cougars couldn’t seem to get anything going around the basket, with Tigers head coach Bradley Davis saying limiting Gustin in the paint was a critical piece of their game plan.
“(Gustin) just dominates the paint and she’s a physical force in there, so she was part of that focus,” Davis said. “I think we did a good job of contesting and making her shots awkward and playing percentage (defense) and that’s why we were able to limit her on the offensive end.”
As for Pacific, they were led in scoring by Liz Smith and Sam Ashby, who scored 21 and 19 points respectively. Smith shot 9-11 from the free throw line and Ashby played a balanced game offensively shooting 7-for-14 and 3-6 from deep.
“(Ashby) was feeling it,” Davis went on to say. “She took a couple heat checks and was feeling it, but that’s great, that’s basketball. We needed somebody to step up and put points on the board and she did that, and I thought she and Liz Smith opened it up inside for us and hit some threes.”
BYU is now 12-10 on the season and 7-4 in conference play, placing the Cougars third in the WCC. BYU’s next game will be on the road at San Diego this coming Saturday at 3 p.m.
