BYU women’s basketball defeated the Westminster Griffins 92-48 after a blisteringly hot start to their exhibition game on Wednesday.
The Cougars opened the game on a 26-0 run through eight minutes, bludgeoning the Griffins inside as Lauren Gustin scored 15 points and grabbed five rebounds on 6-7 shooting from the field in the first period. BYU finished the first quarter ahead 33-2 and shot 72% from the field. Kaylee Smiler and BYU’s freshman guard duo of Amari Whiting and Kailey Woolston had no difficulty finding Gustin early and often. She finished the game with 29 points on 12-17 shooting and 15 rebounds in 26 minutes of play.
Gustin only finished with one assist tonight on the stat sheet but she was the hub of the offense and created multiple hockey assists and many wide-open looks for her teammates, something we can expect to see a lot more of this season.
“I told her this year she could average a triple-double. Because if they want to double team she can kick it out and she’s been doing that in practice. She’s had the most assists in practice across the board the last week,” head coach Amber Whiting said.
Gustin dominated by doing her work early as she established inside position to score six of the game's first eight points. There was not much that the Griffins could do to slow her down the entire night.
The Cougars were without star guard Nani Falatea so freshman guards Whiting and Woolston got the starting nod from Coach Whiting. Falatea should return to the lineup soon but the freshman showed that they can play in their first opportunity in front of the home fans.
BYU’s future looks incredibly bright with the sharp-shooting Woolston and the always tenacious Amari Whiting.
“They did really good… obviously Kailey is a shooter, right, and so she was even handling the ball a lot tonight. Where with Nani out right now she’s kinda had to take on that role and she did a phenomenal job,' said Whiting.
Woolston finished the game with 13 points, four assists and five rebounds in her debut and showed her shooting ability by hitting multiple pull-up threes coming off of screens.
After the first quarter barrage from the Cougars, Westminster responded in the second and third quarters and was only outscored 40-37 during the middle periods. The Griffins forced 11 turnovers from the Cougars during the second and third quarters, something the Cougars will need to clean up as they get into nonconference play.
In the fourth quarter, both teams emptied the benches as BYU cruised to an easy exhibition game victory. Eleven Cougars saw playing time with five players scoring in double digits.
BYU will open their season next Tuesday in Bozeman, Montana as the Cougars take on the Montana State Bobcats.