BYU pounces on Missouri early, extends season by rolling into WBIT quarterfinals

For 10 seconds Monday night at the Marriott Center, visiting Missouri had a lead on BYU in second-round action of the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament.

And then, the “fun,” as freshman Olivia Hamlin put it, began.

With a 25-2 run to end the first quarter, the Cougars put themselves in firm control of the postseason contest before rolling to the 93-75 win.

BYU moves on to the WBIT quarterfinals, where it will host Stanford on Thursday (7 p.m. MDT, ESPN+).

“That was a good game for us. It was really fun to see just the aggressiveness come out from the jump from our group, because it was something that we emphasized leading into this game,” BYU coach Lee Cummard said.

“And it was both sides — we wanted to be aggressive offensively and defensively. We knew some of the things they were going to try to do defensively that they were going to try to exploit and got a couple 3s to go early and just kind of continued that way."

The Cougars, the only No. 1 seed left in the WBIT, were focused from the jump and pounced on the visiting Tigers, shooting 51.4% and flirting with the century mark before settling in nicely at 93 points.

It was BYU’s second-highest scoring game of the season.

The Cougars (24-11) shot a blistering 60% in the first quarter, led by 10 points from All-Big 12 guard Delaney Gibb and 8 from Kambree Barber, as BYU went into the quarter break with a 28-7 lead.

“We were sharing the ball, finding the open person, so I feel like it just made the game easy,” Barber said. Seven of BYU’s 20 assists were in the first quarter.

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Gibb and Barber each hit two 3-pointers in the first period, setting the stage for a night where the Cougars made 14 overall from long range.

Asked to describe the first-quarter dominance, Hamlin simply said, “I mean, I thought it was fun.”

Gibb elaborated.

“I thought that it was one of the best, maybe the best start we’ve had all year,” she said. “And I think that it started with our intensity on defense. We got great stops and then from there our transition, offense was just really the key to the game.”

The sophomore Gibb hit another milestone on her way to a 29-point night as she scored her 1,000th point late in the third quarter. She is the third-fastest in program history to hit the 1,000-point mark.

Gibb, though, wanted to focus on the team’s success — the Cougars have won seven of eight as they prepare for the WBIT quarterfinals.

“I knew that there was a possibility I could break (1,000 points) this game, but I just thought that today was such an overall success as a team and we just really shared the ball and just played so well together,” she said. “And so it’s fun to be able to achieve that in my career on a night where it just felt like we were connected and one together.”

The Cougars dominated the transition game to open the contest and ended up outscoring their SEC opponent 19-10 in fastbreak points.

BYU also crashed the boards, with a dominant 47-33 advantage.

“I liked where everybody’s mindset was,” Cummard said.

It was that kind of night for the Cougars at the Marriott Center in front of the home fans.

“The crowd was great tonight. Right from the jump, the energy was in the building and it really played into how our team performed,” Cummard said.

Gibb and Hamlin (23 points) led the offensive onslaught, though there was plenty of success to go around.

Gibb shot a torrid 11 of 19 from the field and 7 of 11 from the 3-point line, and she added eight rebounds, six assists and three steals.

Hamlin, meanwhile, shot 8 of 15 and 3 of 8 from 3-point range, while adding one rebound, one assist, one block and one steal.

Barber finished with a double-double — 12 points and 11 rebounds — and Brinley Cannon ended up with 11 points, six assists and five rebounds.

“Kambree, I think, had her best game of the season,” Cummard said. “... She got a couple 3s to go early and then they lost her a couple times.”

Missouri made it a bit closer in the end, outscoring the Cougars 27-17 in the fourth quarter when the game was all but wrapped.

Grace Slaughter led the visiting Tigers with 17 points, eight rebounds and three assists, while Chloe Sotell also scored 17.

Even so, BYU was having all sorts of fun — leading by 34 at one point while embracing the opportunity to extend their season.

Bring on Thursday, and the opportunity to host a storied program in Stanford.

“I think it kind of fuels us. We’re here to show that we can do this,” Hamlin said. “So I think we’re just staying focused and building that fuel to prove that we are good.”