BYU women’s basketball won the battle of the boards against Texas Christian University to take a 61-58 victory in the Cougars’ first game at the SDSU Thanksgiving Classic on Friday.
"We made some big defensive plays there at the end," BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. "I thought we did a really good job on the boards, and we didn’t give them too many second looks."
BYU dominated the paint with a 47-38 advantage in rebounds, led by season highs from Jasmine Moody and Sara Hamson, who had 10 and eight, respectively. Moody's 10 boards were also a career high. Hamson added two blocks in a season-high 15 minutes for the 2018 WCC Defensive Player of the Year.
Brenna Chase led the Cougars in scoring with 18, including 11 in the first quarter alone, and also tied her career high of five steals. Shaylee Gonzales and Paisley Johnson followed with 12 and 10 points, respectively, also adding two steals apiece. Johnson had a game-high eight assists.
The Horned Frogs took an early 7-2 lead, but back-to-back 3-pointers from Chase tied the game at 8-5 midway through the first quarter. Chase had all eight of the Cougars’ points. The game remained close until the Cougars went on an 8-0 run to end the first quarter, leading 21-16, to match their season high for a single quarter. BYU dominated the boards in the early going, bringing down 14 rebounds to TCU’s seven in the first 10 minutes. Chase was already in double digits with 11, thanks to 3-for-5 shooting from behind the arc in the first quarter.
TCU opened the second quarter on a quick 5-0 run to tie the game at 21. A series of BYU turnovers allowed TCU to break off a 7-0 run and take a 35-31 lead with a minute left in the half. Johnson hit a jumper in the final seconds to stop the run and bring BYU within two, 35-33, at the half. She had eight points, including a perfect 2-for-2 from three in the first half.
Sara Hamson had her biggest first-half contribution of the season with six boards in 10 minutes. The two teams exchanged leads six times and were tied nine different times during the first half. The Cougars continued to lead in rebounding with a 22-17 advantage, and they also knocked down 6-of-10 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes.
BYU opened the second half with a layup from Salmon to tie the game at 35, followed by a steal from Chase, her second of the night. Almost immediately after, however, the Horned Frogs hit three-consecutive 3-pointers to take their largest lead of the game, 44-35, less than three minutes into the third quarter. Gonzales hit her first 3-pointer of the night to cap off an 8-0 BYU lead to take the lead back, 47-46, with just more than a minute left in the third.
Chase tied her career high with a fifth steal near the end of the third quarter, then followed it up with a layup to increase BYU’s lead to 49-46 heading into the final quarter. Chase led all scorers to that point with 13 points. She then opened the fourth quarter with another score to get her up to 15 and give BYU a 51-46 lead, matching the team’s largest of the game.
Both teams struggled to shoot the ball early in the final quarter, falling below 40 percent from the field on the night. Johnson broke the cold spell with a jumper to put her in double digits with 10, and increase the BYU lead to 53-49 with 5:21 left in the game. The lead didn’t last long, however, as TCU scored four-straight points to tie the game at 53 with 3:35 remaining. Gonzales fired back with a layup to regain the lead and put her in double digits with 11, and Chase scored immediately after to put the Cougars back up by four.
The Horned Frogs refused to go away though, scoring five straight to take another lead, 58-57, with a minute left. Moody then got her 10th rebound of the game and Hamson made a layup to go up, 59-58, with 40 seconds left, leading to a TCU timeout. The Horned Frogs were forced to foul late in the game, and Gonzales made one of two free throws to put the score at 60-58 with 16 seconds left. Johnson got a steal on the following possession, and Chase made one of two free throws to seal the game.
BYU continues its play in the SDSU Thanksgiving Classic on Saturday against California Baptist University at 5 p.m. PDT. The game can be followed with live stats.