BYU defeated the Stanford Cardinal on Thursday night at the Marriott Center in a physical battle for a ticket to the semifinals of the WBIT tournament.
The Cougars punched their ticket to Wichita with a final score of 76-61.
With this win, coach Lee Cummard made program history with the most amount of wins (25) as a first-year head coach at BYU.
“He has honestly been such a great role model on this team,” said sophomore Delaney Gibb. “He holds us to a high standard but he genuinely forms relationships with us.”
Gibb owned the court with 27 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Sophomore Brinley Cannon also had herself a night beyond the arc, shooting 6 of 10. Lara Rohkohl also added a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Stanford did not make it easy for the Cougars. It had three players score in double-digits. Junior Courtney Ogden ran the floor for the Cardinal with 26 points of their 61 total.
“She has finished the season on a tear. She has had a fantastic junior year,” said Stanford coach Kate Paye. “What I’m most proud of with Courtney is how much she’s grown in her leadership role.”
What won the game for the Cougars was their battle on the boards. They outrebounded the Cardinal 53-36. Seventeen of those 56 rebounds were offensive, letting the Cougars convert nine second-chance points.
“That was one of our game plans,” said Rohkohl. “Us trying to get everything, whatever is out there.”
The first quarter was a back-and-forth battle that started with a layup from BYU’s Kambree Barber to put the Cougars on the board. The Cardinals were able to contest with a layup of their own.
The Cougars suffered four turnovers in the first, which gave the Cardinals three easy baskets. But the Cougars still held the lead thanks to the three at the buzzer from Gibb, pushing them ahead by one.
Stanford went on a 6-0 run early in the second quarter which was powered down by a 3 from Cannon. Her shot led BYU to a 9-0 run over Stanford to force the Cardinal into a time out.
Out of Stanford's timeout, the Cougars started foul trouble that affected them the rest of the game. They pushed the Cardinal to the free throw line, where they went 13 of 13. This allowed them to keep up with BYU’s offensive momentum.
Stanford came out with energy in the second half. The two teams were playing in a very physical way, making it hard to get on a run on either end.
Despite this, Stanford used this physicality to their advantage, drawing fouls on BYU’s players, pushing them to the free throw line. It forced BYU to a total of 15 turnovers and profited with 17 points off those turnovers.
Stanford had almost half of its points from free throws and BYU’s turnovers.
The Cardinal outscored the Cougars by five points in the third quarter, making it a one-point game going into the last ten minutes.
The fourth quarter opened up with a 3-point play by BYU’s Cannon. But it was shortly matched by an and-1 conversion by Stanford's Chloe Cardy.
The comeback for Stanford was in reach, trailing by one point. But Delaney Gibb silenced the Cardinal with two back-to-back 3s that left the crowd erupting.
“She wanted the moment and she’s not afraid of it,” said Cummard. “She’s never going to stop being aggressive and that’s who she is.”
These clutch shots from Gibb led the Cougars to a 15-0 run in the fourth quarter. This made it impossible for the Cardinal to recover and secure the spot for BYU in Wichita on Monday.
“We stayed really even and in it the whole game,” said Cannon. “It started with intensity defensively and getting rebounds.”
The Cougars will face fellow Big 12 Conference member Kansas with the tip-off time to be announced.