BYU women’s basketball drops 52-49 heartbreaker at San Diego

In a battle for third place in the West Coast Conference standings, BYU fell 52-49 on the road to San Diego Saturday afternoon.

“We can’t be casual with the ball,” BYU head coach Amber Whiting said Thursday after practice. “We had a lot of turnovers that were on us, so we gotta focus in on defense and taking care of the ball and that’s been a common theme every single game.”

BYU committed 10 turnovers in the first half, finishing the night with 19 as San Diego scored 20 points from the Cougar giveaways.

The Cougars started off strong, outscoring the Toreros 13-11 in the first quarter.

San Diego saw its first lead early in the second quarter but quickly fell into a six minute scoring drought. Unable to capitalize on the Toreros’ missed shots, the Cougars finished the quarter in a four minute scoring drought of their own but managed to go into halftime with an encouraging one-point lead at 21-20.

The third quarter exhausted that advantage as the Toreros went on a 10-0 scoring run as the Cougars became stuck in yet another scoreless stretch, putting San Diego ahead 34-25.

BYU started the fourth quarter with 16 turnovers, twice as many as San Diego, but picked up momentum and cut the Torero lead down to three with four minutes left in the game. With only a minute remaining on the clock, there was light at the end of the tunnel as Kaylee Smiler tied the game at 43.

San Diego proved to excel under the pressure and hit a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left to play. Cougar foul trouble put the Toreros on the free throw line for an additional six points to win the game at 52-49.

Lauren Gustin posted 14 points and 16 rebounds on the afternoon, marking the 50th double-double of her career.

Dropping to fourth in the WCC, BYU sets to play Pepperdine next at the Marriott Center on Feb. 9.