BYU women's basketball comes up short of WBIT title. What did Cougars learn from 3-week run?

WICHITA, Kan. — BYU women's basketball search for a first postseason trophy was held off by the heart of a Lion.

But the Cougars' three-week run through the 32-team WBIT is a beginning instead of an end. Or at least, it can be.

Mia Broom had 21 points, six rebounds and four assists, and Rachel Weiss added 20 points with seven rebounds, four assists and two steals as Columbia secured its first WBIT title with an 81-64 win at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas.

Columbia led by as much as 27 in the fourth quarter, but Delaney Gibb scored in transition to cap a 24-6 that pulled BYU within 72-63 with 52 seconds remaining.

The Cougars could get no closer, stiff-armed by a 54-46 rebounding deficit and a 17% 3-point shooting effort.

Gibb finished with 24 points, eight rebounds, five assists and eight steals as BYU (26-12) forced 22 turnovers for 18 points. Olivia Hamlin added 17 points and three steals off the bench for the Cougars, who got 8 points, 13 rebounds, three steals and two blocked shots from Lara Rohkohl in her final collegiate game.

"We've got a special locker room," said BYU coach Lee Cummard, whose team set a program record for most wins by a first-year head coach. "If you spent time with these athletes, these players, you'll know why some of the results happened the way they did.

"They're high-character young women that carry themselves, and there's many instances in what we put on them as far as expectations where they've risen to the occasion," he added. "That's not just on the basketball court. Some of the things that we are trying to expect from them, how they carry themselves, how they talk and act in public. They're just a great group. They're special."

The NCAA transfer portal opens Monday — though Cummard said he would like "you all back" from his current team. Of course, he admits change is usually inevitable in the current age of college basketball.

"I don't know what's going to happen," he said. "We love our group. We were all in. Really pleased with the growth of them as people. Really pleased with how we hit some adversity and the group just got closer. I do think it speaks more so to (the culture); we're trying to establish that, but they're just great human beings that want to see everybody succeed."

Weiss, the reigning Ivy League Player of the Year, scored 14 points in the second quarter including a pair of 3-pointers as Columbia stretched its lead to 34-15 with 5:04 left in the half. The junior from Hewlett, New York, matched BYU's offense by herself in the second quarter.

In home wins over Alabama A&M, Missouri and Stanford to open the WBIT, BYU shot better than 43% from the field — the same number they shot in a 70-67 win over Big 12 foe Kansas in Monday's tournament semifinals. But the Cougars never shot better than 27% against the Lions until a 13-2 run that Rohkohl capped to pull the Cougars within 66-52 with 4:41 remaining.

Combine it with a streaking Columbia, which won 10 consecutive games against teams not named Harvard before Wednesday's final, and BYU fell behind by as much as 25 points in the second half.

But Wednesday's game was about more than a win. Sure neither team had won a national postseason championship, and both programs were eager to add a trophy to the case for the first time.

Yet more important was the momentum of next year, especially with a Columbia team that (theoretically) returns Weiss next season and a BYU squad capable of returning eight of its top-nine scorers for 2026-27.

Gibb took a step forward, going form Big 12 freshman of the year to All-Big 12 first-team selection despite playing fewer games due to injury. The 5-foot-10 Canadian international also moved into a primary ball handling role from the off-guard position she enjoyed in a breakout freshman campaign.

"She's the face of this team," BYU teammate Brinley Cannon said. "Obviously, she scores a lot of points. But she also has a really big role of just keeping us connected and tied together because she is such a great player. And I think she's held that role and position with a lot of grace and in really selfless ways."

Each of the past two winners in the WBIT's short history qualified for the NCAA Tournament the next year, including a Sweet 16 run by last year's champion Minnesota.

Momentum is a powerful motivator, and the extra practices allowed by playing longer than all but 10 women's basketball teams in the country can only benefit development for a team that relies heavily on five freshmen or sophomores among the top-seven scorers.

"I'm a big dreamer, so I have a lot of expectations," Gibb said. "I think with this group being so young, it's super exciting, and it's super fun to see. Obviously we're going to really miss our seniors. They were the foundation of our team, and they were the leaders of this group.

"Obviously there's going to have to be some gaps being filled just in that aspect," she added. "But it's super exciting to have such a young group of girls because there is so much potential and there's so much growth that can happen."

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