Delaney Gibb saw red Saturday afternoon, and in the process, she led the BYU women’s basketball team past Utah 86-74 at the Huntsman Center.
The win gave the Cougars a season sweep of the Utes after BYU won by 12 in Provo three weeks ago.
Gibb’s career-high 37 points were largely the storyline of Saturday’s matchup, as most other details branched off from her heat check of a contest.
“When she gets that ball going, the basket gets enormous, and that’s what happened today,” BYU coach Lee Cummard said. “I mean, she even banked one in today, but I’ve seen it quite a few times, whether it’s in high school, in club basketball, and I mean, now twice in two seasons up here in the Huntsman Center.
“I don’t know what it is about when she sees red, but she’s been pretty good the last two times up here, so it was fun to watch.”
Gibb’s most impressive stretch of the game came in the fourth quarter.
Utah, despite a slump to start the third quarter, had clawed back within 10 at 62-52 with 7:47 to play.
Coming out of a timeout, though, Gibb nailed a 3-pointer, then she proceeded to make two more on the Cougars’ next couple of possessions.
That pushed the lead back to 17, and Utah could never close within single digits in the final period.
For good measure, Gibb banked in a running 3 later with the shot clock winding down to push the lead back to 78-65.
“Delaney Gibb is one of the best players in the (Big 12) conference, and we didn’t do a good enough job breaking her out of her rhythm,” Utah coach Gavin Petersen said.
“And that’s a credit to her. I’ve been on the other end of these games where Gianna Kneepkens or Kennady McQueen goes for the same amount. When somebody’s feeling it, it’s hard, and when she banked in that 3, it was a backbreaker for us.”
“When somebody’s feeling it, it’s hard, and when she banked in that 3, it was a backbreaker for us.”
— Utah coach Gavin Petersen
As Cummard referenced, Gibb isn’t unfamiliar to having big games at the Huntsman — her previous career-high in points came last season when she scored 36 in an overtime loss to Utah.
In that game, Gibb turned the ball over on BYU’s final possession before Maty Wilke nailed a half-court heave to win the thriller.
Gibb got redemption this time, though.
She shot 13 of 21 from the field, including 5 of 8 from 3-point range, while adding five rebounds, five assists, two blocked shots and two steals.
“I just was put in positions to be successful,” Gibb said. “We were joking before the game, my high school colors were red and I love the color red, so we were joking that when I see the stands and it’s all red, I love it, but it’s just a high-energy game, and I think that I just feed off that.
“I’m super competitive. Props to my teammates, they did a great job of finding me early and giving me easy opportunities in the in the first half, which kind of got me rolling.”
Both teams battled back and forth through the first half, as BYU opened up a nine-point lead in the second quarter before Utah (17-11, 8-8 Big 12) trimmed it back to two points.
The Cougars (18-10, 7-9 Big 12) ended the first half with a 5-0 spurt over the final 45 seconds to make it 36-29 at the break, and that started a critical stretch that played a major role in determining the outcome.
Building off that last-minute second-quarter run, BYU scored seven quick points to start the third. Lara Rohkohl hit two shots inside, and Kambree Barber hit a 3 after a Utah turnover, making the score 43-29 before fans had settled back into their seats after intermission.
“I think we did a really great job of executing in the third quarter on defense, and that really led to easy transition buckets on offense,” Gibb said.
“I think that was kind of a difference-maker, just making them take tough shots, getting a quick outlet and just pushing the ball.”
The Cougars ended up with a 10-1 edge in fast-break points while outshooting the Utes 53.7% to 33.3% and holding Utah to 8 of 28 from 3-point range.
BYU continued to pile on during that early third-quarter stretch, eventually scoring 15 of the first 16 points of the period as it pushed its lead as high as 21 points at 51-30.
“The start of the third quarter was bizarre, because, the players we had on the court are usually like, ‘Let’s go,’” Petersen said. “And (BYU) scored quickly, I think, seven straight points, and then we turned the ball over.
“... We can’t compound those mistakes, like if they’re scoring, we turn the ball over, we miss a shot. We just got to be able to kind of stop the bleeding a lot sooner, especially when you’re starting the third quarter at already a deficit. That’s something I think we got to just continue to practice and continue to fight and and try to turn the page there.”
Stretches like that have become an unfortunately common theme for the Utes in recent weeks, as they’ve gone from beating ranked teams like TCU and West Virginia to losing five of their past seven games since that victory over the Mountaineers.
“You gotta push through these losses. We can’t hang our heads on this. We have however many games ahead of us and a (conference) tournament,” Utah senior Lani White said.
“That’s (what) I always try and tell them, to stay where their feet are, because if we look too far ahead, then we don’t focus on the right now, but I mean, we got to take this loss on the chin and just keep pushing.”
While Utah’s defense suffered through repeated breakdowns all afternoon, BYU was able to attack the paint early. The Cougars wound up with a 30-16 edge in points in the paint.
That helped lead to BYU shooting well from the 3-point line in the second half, as the Utes collapsed defensively. The Cougars made 8 of 14 from 3-point range in the final two quarters and were 11 of 24 from long range overall.
“(Attacking the paint) really helped us, and I think it allowed for some of the good shooting that we had,” Cummard said. “I don’t know for sure, (but that) was one of the best 3-point nights that we had field goal percentage-wise.
“A lot of that has to do with Delaney, but we had a kind of approach of we just want to play on an attack.”
Olivia Hamlin hit a pair of 3-pointers and added 11 points, three rebounds, an assist and a steal for BYU, while Sydney Benally (13 points, two assists) also provided a spark offensively.
Rohkohl made an impact on both ends, finishing with 11 points while adding six blocks and five rebounds.
White ended up leading the Utes with 20 points, five rebounds, two blocks and a steal, though she was the only starter to shoot above 50%.
Wilke added 13 points on 4 of 12 shooting and had two assists, while Grace Foster came off the bench to score 10, with eight of those points coming in the fourth quarter as Utah tried to rally.
This was a must-win game for both programs going into the contest in terms of postseason hopes. When BYU beat Utah in Provo three weeks ago, both teams were largely in the NCAA bubble discussion.
Since then, the Cougars had gone 1-4 while the Utes were 2-3.
That kind of slump has pushed both of them into territory where they need to make an impressive run down the stretch to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.
“Let’s go. I mean, at this point in the season, let’s play our way into the tournament. That’s the mindset that I’m going to give them, and that’s what I want from them,” Petersen said.
“I want them to be like, ‘Let’s go.’ That’s why you signed up to come play in these games in this conference at this school, and let’s get after it.”
Both teams hit the road next for critical midweek games against teams in the upper half of the Big 12.
Utah will play at Colorado on Tuesday, while BYU heads to Tempe to take on Arizona State.
For now, BYU can enjoy a win and the sweep over Utah.
“It was a battle,” Cummard said, “and I thought our group was engaged, as we’ve been in recent games.”