BYU women's basketball rolls in 2nd half, routs McNeese State

The BYU women's basketball team overcame a slow start Tuesday night before building a big lead in the second half en route to a dominating 85-64 victory over McNeese State at the Marriott Center.

The Cougars enjoyed big performances from many of their players. They poured in points from all over the floor and from every position as five players hit double figures in points and a sixth scored seven.

BYU was led by Emma Calvert and Delaney Gibb, who each had 18. Amari Whiting, Kemery Congdon and Brinley Cannon had 11 apiece.

“It wasn’t as pretty as we wanted, but the most important thing for me is having five players in double digits,” coach Amber Whiting said. “It just shows this team, if they play together and they all are firing, it’s going to be really hard to beat us. ”

This is the first time the Cougars have hit five players in double digits this season and it helped them remain unbeaten as they moved to 5-0.

BYU got big contributions from its bench as both Kambree Barber and Cannon got extended minutes and were very effective for the team.

“If I go in and do my part and get offensive boards I feel like it amps me up and it amps my team up,” Barber said.

To begin the game, McNeese won the tip but BYU would get on the board first with a layup from Calvert. Calvert was big throughout the first half as she poured in 11 points in the first half.

The Cougars, however, struggled to take care of the ball. They turned the ball over frequently in the first quarter resulting in a five-point deficit with 2:57 left in the period. Cannon was nearly single-handedly able to dig them out. She took over for the end of the quarter going on a 7-0 run by herself off two BYU steals to give them a two-point lead.

“All those points were in transition so we did a good job getting up the floor and passing early,” Cannon said.

The next quarter was filled with runs from both teams stretching to as many as 9-0 on both sides. Congdon was able to boost BYU with two consecutive three-pointers, which started their biggest run of the half and ultimately led to the Cougars going into the half with a six-point lead, 41-35.

Out of halftime, BYU was a different team. The Cougars moved with more pace played better defense and protected the ball. In the first half, they had eight turnovers as opposed to just three in the second half. This helped them build an early lead in the second half specifically getting a spark from Gibb in the third quarter who scored 12 of her 18 on the night and six directly out of the half.

“We just focused on closing out high because they were hitting a lot of shots and also knowing where the shooters were, bringing that intensity and pushing in transition,” Cannon said. “I feel like we got a lot of good stuff in transition in the first half, so we were just trying to continue that in the second half.”

The Cougars executed that plan well as they ended with 23 assists on 32 made field goals and outscored the Cowgirls 25-1 in transition.

BYU went on a 15-4 run out of the halftime and never looked back. The lead got to its largest at 25 late in the fourth. Throughout the game and in this period there were big contributions from the Cougars' bench in. Notably, Hattie Ogden hit a 3-pointer and Naia Tanuvasa hit a couple of free throws for the first points in their respective BYU careers.

BYU hosts Northern Colorado Saturday at 3 p.m.