For the first time in the history of women’s basketball at BYU, the Cougars are 40 minutes away from winning a major postseason tournament.
And they have three made shots to thank for keeping their season alive.
Monday’s WBIT semifinal between BYU and Kansas was a dogfight, as the Cougars and Jayhawks exchanged leads on 13 different occasions in addition to 10 ties.
It was the polar opposite of BYU’s previous three WBIT outings, where Lee Cummard’s squad won by an average of nearly 20 points each time.
The 13th and final lead change on Monday came with 5:30 left to play in the contest, when BYU’s dynamic freshman guard Olivia Hamlin drained a 3-pointer to put her team ahead by a point.
Exactly 60 seconds later, fellow freshman Sydney Benally hit a triple of her own, then completed the heat check on BYU’s ensuing possession with another long range knockdown.
In the blink of an eye, the trio of 3-pointers from the freshman duo vaulted the Cougars from down by two points to ahead by seven.
But more importantly, the tide of the back-and-forth affair had shifted for good. BYU grabbed the victory right then and never let go.
“Those shots were amazing,” said BYU forward Lara Rohkohl of Hamlin and Benally’s heroics. “Those shots got us ahead, and those shots won us the game.”
BYU ultimately secured a 70-67 triumph over the Jayhawks at Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kansas, clinching a trip to Wednesday’s WBIT championship final against No. 4-seeded Columbia of the Ivy League.
After having lost four straight games to Kansas since joining the Big 12, including a 81-60 setback in Lawrence less than two months ago, the Cougars finally bested the Jayhawks in their most high-leverage matchup to date.
“Tremendous atmosphere and experience for our group,” Cummard said after the game. “Coach (Brandon) Schneider and his staff do such a fantastic job, they’ve really had our number since we’ve come into this league ... they’re a really hard matchup for us, he does a great job of finding the mismatches and opportunities for his group.
“... But just a great college basketball game and just two good teams that went toe to toe.”
Kansas jumped out to a 8-0 start to the afternoon, leading by three points at halftime and by five at the start of the fourth quarter.
But BYU’s shotmaking — led by Hamlin and Benally — and overall defensive effort — spearheaded by Rohkohl — allowed the Cougars to claw back in the second half, winning the fourth quarter by a 24-16 margin.
“Lara kind of was a pillar defensively for us, and then Sydney and Olivia were tremendous in the second half, just alleviating some of the pressure that (the Jayhawks) were putting on Delaney (Gibb) and making huge plays, big shot after big shot, attacking the rim, and ultimately the scoring of Sydney and Olivia ended up being the difference,” Cummard said.
Hamlin enjoyed a career night, coming off the bench for 23 points on 8 of 12 shooting and four made 3-pointers, with her scoring giving BYU the lead six different times — including that aforementioned go-ahead fourth quarter triple.
“I’ve been around this game a long time. I’ve never seen somebody fill it up as fast as her,” Cummard said of Hamlin. “We’ve seen it multiple times this season where she sees that thing go through the hoop, and it is on, like, it’s just an onslaught.”
Hamlin’s performance proved especially valuable considering BYU’s typical scoring leader Delaney Gibb had a bit of an off night — at least by her high standards — in shooting just 4 for 13 from the floor with seven turnovers.
Gibb did score 12 points while adding six assists and seven rebounds, but her greatest contribution came in the form of helping to unleash Benally, who provided 15 points of her own — 10 in the second half — with four made 3-pointers as well.
“I think a lot of (my success) was just from Delaney,” Benally said. “She was finding me in transition, and I could hear from the sideline, ‘Just spot up,’ so I was constantly encouraged to just keep shooting. With their confidence in me, I had confidence in myself.”
Most impressive about Hamlin and Benally’s scoring outburst was how the pair had been held to 5 of 21 shooting in BYU’s previous matchup with Kansas, yet they combined for 38 points in Monday’s rematch.
It’s clear Hamlin and Benally have come a long way since Lawrence, with their improvement just one part of the collective high confidence BYU is swimming in after winning nine of its past 10 outings.
“I think this game, just coming in with the confidence of, like, we could play harder than (how) we played last time (against Kansas) and just having that confidence and trust in our teammates, I think that’s exactly what we did,” Hamlin said. “We came out ready to win, and I think that’s what helped.”
The Cougars also held Kansas to 37.5% shooting from the floor and 25% from behind the arc, with Rohkohl swatting six blocks, Gibb swiping three steals and 13 Jayhawk turnovers resulting in 12 BYU points.
“We were getting stops on defense, so we were able to get in our transition offense, and that’s what we thrive in,” Benally said.
BYU has now won four postseason games for the first time in program history, and a win over Columbia on Wednesday would likewise be the school’s first women’s basketball postseason tournament title.
“I think when we have the momentum and energy on our side, it just makes us have all this confidence in ourselves,” Hamlin said. “That’s when we start hitting shots, and then we just have fun out there.”
And if Hamlin and her teammates play how they did in Monday’s second half on Wednesday, they’ll get to have the most fun of all — hoisting a trophy and raising a championship banner.