BYU women weather Houston's attack, pull away for first-round Big 12 win

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Last-place Houston had nothing to lose, and the BYU women needed a full half of basketball to finally counter what its opponent threw at them in the first round of the Big 12 women's basketball tournament.

And even then, Houston refused to concede until the very end.

But ninth-seeded BYU held firm late behind a pivotal Sydney Benally 3-pointer that helped lift the team to a 76-66 win over Houston in what was the team's first Big 12 Tournament win since joining the conference three years ago.

Benally was one of four BYU (21-10, 9-9 Big 12) players to finish in double figures with 14 points, six assists and two rebounds in the win. But her 3-pointer with 6:19 left was the catalyst to help BYU eventually pull away for good.

Leading up to the Benally 3-pointer, Houston had erased a BYU 12-point lead over a three-minute stretch, putting the pressure on the Blue Cougars to answer. That was made even more difficult when seconds earlier, BYU's leading scorer, Delaney Gibb, picked up her fourth foul.

But Benally found some space against Houston's aggressive defensive game plan and drained the triple to shift the tone of the game.

"That was a big momentum switch," BYU guard Brinley Cannon said of the 3-pointer. "We were kind of in a little rut. They kind of went on a run and it was kind of going down to wire. And so when she hit that, it just settled us. She just played super composed, and that three kind of just settled us to finish the rest of the game."

BYU head coach Lee Cummard said it was one of those moments where his players started to believe they could get the job done in a gritty conference basketball game.

"You can tell the confidence in the players eyes at that moment, that three was huge for them," Cummard said.

Over the final six minutes of the game, BYU maintained at least a two possession lead that only grew as the game drew closer to its conclusion. Even with Houston (7-23, 1-17 Big 12) employing a full-court press, and hitting much-needed free throws, BYU found its openings to break the defense and pull away for the win.

Olivia Hamlin led BYU with 16 points and five rebounds off the bench, with Gibb and Lara Rohkohl finishing with 15 points apiece and 13 combined rebounds in the win. Gibb had 11 first-half points as one of the only offensive weapons early for BYU.

Houston opened up the game attacking BYU in every facet of the game, which sped up and frustrated the Blue Cougars into 10 first-quarter turnovers. That continued in the second quarter as BYU tallied 15 first-half giveaways.

But the Red Cougars couldn't capitalize on the giveaways as the team shot just 30% from the floor in the opening half. Even then, though, Houston had enough in the tank to tie up the game 29-29 at the halftime break.

"We realized that the pressure we brought upon them, it kind of scared them a little bit," Houston's Shun'teria Anumele said of the team's regular-season contest against BYU. "So just going into this game ... we knew that keeping that same mindset, that same energy in this game with more players, it was going to happen on the front team again."

Cummard said Houston's attack limited much of what BYU wanted to do with its game plan in the first half, but the team settled itself after the halftime break and did better at dictating its own game plan and not letting Houston dictate it — which started with cutting the turnovers in half in the final two quarters.

"Luckily for us, we were able to hit enough shots and not turn over as much in the second half to kind of mitigate their success at the foul line," Cummard said.

Anumele led Houston in scoring with 17 points and four rebounds off the bench, with senior TK Pitts supplying an additional 14 points and 10 rebounds in the final game of the season.

BYU will now turn its attention to rival Utah for a second-round matchup Thursday (12:30 p.m. MST, ESPN+). The Cougars won both contests against the Utes during the regular season, but the Big 12 Tournament game may serve as a sort of NCAA Tournament elimination game for the two bubble teams.

"When we started the week, we saw that in the brackets," Cummard said. "I didn't want our group to be looking past Houston at all, especially because it was Utah. Everybody wants to talk about having a matchup with Utah. We wanted to stay in the moment with Houston, and I think they did a great job of that, knowing if we can be successful, we get a wild one in the Big 12 Tournament.

"They're a great team, and it'll be a great matchup tomorrow, but we're looking forward to it."

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