Delaney Gibb and Amari Whiting lead the BYU women’s basketball program in just about every category.
On an undersized roster, the 5-foot-10 tandem represents the kind of punch the Cougars (10-6, 1-4) must throw on a nightly basis to remain in the fight in the Big 12.
It’s a lot to ask for young players whose nights can vary from diamonds to rocks.
Whiting, a sophomore from Burley, Idaho, leads BYU in assists (65), rebounds (92) and steals (30) while averaging 10.2 points per game.
Gibb, a freshman from Raymond, Alberta, Canada, tops the team in scoring (16.6) and brandishes the best averages from the 3-point line (39%) and foul line (83%). She is second on the squad in steals (24), assists (61) and blocked shots (9).
“They just play off each other really well. Either one can bring up the ball, either one can play off the ball, either one can pick up, either one can get steals,” BYU head coach Amber Whiting told the “Y’s Guys” podcast this week. “They are so competitive, and they just want to win.”
Gibb’s 16 points against Houston last Wednesday and her 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists against then-No. 12 Kansas State on Saturday earned her a fourth “Big 12 Newcomer of the Week” award.
“She is going to draw more of the defensive focus,” said Whiting as the Cougars prepare for a Saturday date at Texas Tech (5 p.m. MST, ESPN+).
The coach continued, “She is just going to learn to get in her bag more. She has some goals with how she wants to play for her Canadian National Team in the Olympics. She is set on certain things she wants to happen in her life and so this is her journey that we are all on.”
Whiting, the coach’s daughter, is in her second year as the BYU point guard and has started all 49 games after decommitting from Oregon and surviving an ACL tear.
She scored 20 in the win against Houston but was held to just a pair of points against the Wildcats (17-1, 5-0).
“Leading us in rebounds, assists, and steals — I expect that,” Whiting said of her daughter. “If she’s not doing that, she’s not doing her job. (Defensively) is where she gets us going. She takes it on every night, and I love that she just owns it.”
At times, Gibb and Whiting look like seasoned seniors, while in other moments, the reality of their youth shows up in turnovers.
Gibb has the most on the team (72) and Whiting is next (42). Freshmen Brinley Cannon (20) and Kambree Barber (18) are also trying to grow up quickly.
“As freshmen, you learn as you go through the nonconference (games) and you get the adjustment from high school to college and then there is that last adjustment to the Big 12,” Whiting said. “It’s bigger, it’s faster, it’s stronger and everything is more pressured. Just to be able to take care of it, slow down, make the easy play, they will learn that.”
The sooner, the better for a team that has to sling their stones against the Big 12 Goliaths and hit the target over and over to succeed.
The Cougars draw experience from seniors Emma Calvert, Kemery Congdon and Lauren Davenport, but the igniters are Gibb and Whiting and there is no other role the one-two punch wants to have.
“Some of my favorite (moments) are when they make a play and make the other one look good, and they get excited about it. I love that,” Whiting said. “They are just out there, and they are in it for the right reasons, and I love that about them.”