Brenna Chase scored a career-high 25 points as BYU women's basketball cruised to a 55-34 win over Santa Clara at the Leavey Event Center on Thursday night.
"We had a great defensive effort tonight, especially holding a team on its floor to just 34 points," BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. "Brenna had a great game tonight. Not just offensively, but defensively as well."
Chase scored 17 in the second half and made 5-of-9 of her 3-pointers in the game. Cassie Broadhead Devashrayee and Sara Hamson each scored 10 points. The Cougars (14-10, 9-4 West Coast Conference) scored 22 points off turnovers and held the Broncos (7-17, 3-10) to 20 percent shooting.
The game got off to a slow offensive start, as the Cougars led just 9-7 after the first quarter. A few minutes into the second quarter, Devashrayee knocked down a 3-pointer to put BYU up 16-9 and force a Bronco timeout. Out of the timeout, Chase buried a three for a 10-point Cougar lead.
A Paisley Johnson free throw capped a 9-0 run for BYU as it led 22-9 with 2:39 left in the first half.
BYU took a 26-12 advantage into the locker room after outscoring Santa Clara, 17-5, in the second quarter. Chase and Hamson led the Cougars with eight points apiece. Devashrayee had seven.
After leading 31-15, BYU allowed the Broncos to go on a 7-2 run. Malia Nawahine made a 3-pointer with 2:34 left in the quarter to make it 36-22 for the Cougars. A minute later, Shalae Salmon gave BYU its biggest lead up to that point with a lay-in that made it 40-22.
Four minutes into the final quarter, Chase knocked down a long 3-pointer to give the Cougars their first 20-point lead at 45-25. The duo of Chase and Devashrayee made four-straight field goals as BYU extended its lead to 52-28 with less than five minutes to play.
From then on, the Cougars maintained a lead of at least 20 points and came out with the 55-34 win.
The Cougars stay in Northern California to take on San Francisco on Saturday at 2 p.m. PST. The game will be streamed on TheW.tv.