The BYU women's basketball team earned its first postseason win since 2021 on Thursday night as the Cougars defeated Alabama A&M in the first round of the WBIT tournament.
The final score was 72-47.
The Cougars overall outshot the Bulldogs, shooting 47% from field goal and 50% from the 3-point line. The Bulldogs overall struggled with their shots, shooting 30% from field goal and only making 4 of their 21 shot threes.
Freshman Sydney Benally led the Cougars, tying her career high of 18 points. She also led the team in assists and broke the previous record set by Shaylee Gonzales of most all-time assists as a freshman.
BYU had four players score in double figures. In addition to Benally, Lara Rohkohl had 13 points, Delaney Gibb had 11 and Olivia Hamlin had 10.
Senior Kalia Walker led the Bulldogs with 20 points. Nine of her 20 points were from the 3-point line. Senior Moses Davenport also led the team in blocks with four overall.
Alabama A&M’s defense ignited some fight with BYU. It forced the Cougars to 17 turnovers, 10 of those came from just the first half. It also had nine steals and five blocks. Unfortunately, the Bulldogs couldn’t perform on the offensive end to benefit from their defensive stops.
The first quarter started off well for A&M with the first points of the game from Walker. BYU quickly put points on the board with a free throw from Gibb. A&M went on a 0-5 scoring drought early in the first and BYU took advantage by going on a 7-0 run.
Rohkohl and Benally dominated the first half for the Cougars. They had 13 points a piece, making up 26 of the team's 39 points.
“Running the floor and passing ... getting the ball down the floor was one of our focuses in this game,” Rohkohl said.
Down by 16, Alabama A&M came out with intensity into the second half.
“We didn’t come here just to get a participation trophy, we came to compete.” said coach Dawn Thurton about the second-half approach.
It started off with two layups and forced a turnover on BYU. This caused BYU to call a timeout.
Out of the timeout, BYU picked up right where it left off in the first half. Gibb ended their scoring drought with a three. The Cougars were able to get two back to back steals to add to this momentum and push their lead going into the fourth quarter.
In the fourth, it was evident how deep this team runs into the bench. Players like Braeden Gunlock and Hattie Ogden were able to check-in in the final minutes and make their mark in this first round matchup. Ogden had six points in the last seven minutes. Gunlock had a steal and a layup of her own.
“It adds some pressure to perform and be ready to go with some urgency, like hey if you don’t we have some pretty good players to come in,” coach Lee Cummard said about the value of having a team that runs deep.
BYU will continue its tournament run on Monday at 7 p.m., at the Marriott Center to face No. 4 seed Missouri.