No. 1 seed BYU defeated No. 4 seed Missouri 93-75 in the second round of the WBIT tournament on Monday night in Provo.
The Cougars are enjoying a historic run, marking the first time they've won two postseason games since 2014.
With this win, coach Lee Cummard tied Jeff Judkins for the most wins (24) by a first-year head coach in program history.
“We got a great group. They’ve been completing all in for the whole season and their hard work is paying off and being rewarded and I'm in a really lucky position,” Cummard said. ”To be compared or in any conversation with coach Judkins is a tremendous honor because he is women’s basketball at BYU.”
Sophomore Delaney Gibb ran the show for the Cougars. She had 29 points with eight rebounds and six assists. She also hit her 1,000 career point mark in the third quarter. She is the third fastest Cougar to reach this landmark in just 57 games.
“She’s so active and she is very athletic, very quick.” said Missouri coach Kellie Harper ofGibb’s performance. “The toughest thing about her to guard is the fact that she can pass.”
But the strength of BYU’s offense didn’t stop there. Freshman Olivia Hamlin tied her career-high with 23 points. Sophomore Kambree Barber also had a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
“I thought we shared the ball pretty well, and it was fun," said Hamlin.
The fate of the game was evident in the first quarter. Gibb had the first points with a 3 and that was matched by a 3 from Missouri’s Grace Slaughter. This fight from the Tigers was short-lived. After Slaughter’s 3m the Cougars went on a 25-2 run in the first 10 minutes.
“I thought it was maybe the best start we’ve had all year,” Gibb said. “We got great stops and then from there our transition offense was just really the key to the game. Shoutout to everyone who was nailing threes and getting easy buckets.”
Missouri shot poorly in the start. It went 15% from the field, compared to BYU’s 60%.
In the second, BYU’s run was finally put to a stop with a 3 from Slaughter. The Tigers then went on a 5-0 run against the Cougars and they opened the door for a comeback. That door was slammed with five back to back points by Hamlin which pushed BYU to a 6-0 run to end the half.
Missouri kept up with the Cougars, with both teams scoring 20 points in the second quarter, but it needed to get a stop early on in order to have a comeback in consideration.
The third and fourth quarters were fought in a similar way, with Missouri and BYU trading points, but it was evident who was owning the game.
The Cougars went on another run fueled by Gibb and Hamlin early in the fourth which allowed all the players on the bench to get a chance on the floor.
“I liked everyone’s approach tonight,” Cummard said. “It was a confident approach.”
This confidence showed through, even to Missouri’s coach.
“It’s a good basketball team and they can continue to win,” said Harper.
This attitude will be important for BYU to maintain as it comes into the quarterfinals of the WBIT.
Coming just short of the NCAA tournament, performing well in the WBIT has meant a lot for BYU.
“We’re here to show that we can do this," Hamlin said.
“It’s been super motivating going into next season. Obviously we wanted and we hoped to make the NCAA tournament and that didn’t happen. So Liv explained it’s kind of like a revenge tour in a way,” Gibb said.
The Cougars will continue their homecourt tournament run on Thursday, when they face No. 2 seed Stanford at 7 pm.