WICHITA, Kansas — BYU has made a habit of riding a wave of team-centric play behind young stars like Delaney Gibb and Olivia Hamlin to plenty of victories this season, 26 to be exact.
It has put the Cougar women’s basketball program back on a positive trajectory, one led by first-year coach Lee Cummard.
Four straight wins in the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament going into Wednesday also had BYU on the cusp of earning the program’s first national postseason tournament title.
The Ivy League’s Columbia had other plans, though, dominating the Cougars for three quarters before beating BYU 81-64 in the WBIT championship game at Charles Koch Arena.
It wasn’t just Wednesday that Columbia (25-8) showed it’s a real pain for opponents.
The Lions won their five WBIT games by an average of 23.4 points, with only one decided by single digits. That included three wins over power conference schools.
BYU, with its group led primarily by underclassmen, couldn’t compete for a full 40 minutes against Columbia.
The Lions had been to the NCAA Tournament the previous two seasons, and they showed their poise and composure in winning the WBIT trophy in the postseason tournament’s third year of existence.
“Tremendous effort by Columbia today. I think coming into this, you could see how tough they were, how physical they were, how hard they played. I think for about the first 32 minutes of the game, they were the harder playing, tougher team,” Cummard said.
“They showed some of their ways and experience in this moment. I believe they lost in the NCAA Tournament or the NIT a couple years ago, but they showed some of that postseason experience where we got a little erratic and did some things when it didn’t go right early, then we turned into a little bit of just out of character for us. At least the way that we’ve been playing.”
The things that worked over the past four games — being the aggressor, playing cohesively as a team over the majority of the night and hitting big shots — didn’t materialize Wednesday night.
Give credit to Columbia for making BYU uncomfortable. The Cougars had only eight assists to 18 turnovers, and for much of the night, BYU was flirting with having its worst shooting performance of the season.
“I think they just did a really great job of being tough, gritty and physical. They did a great job of just playing good straight-up defense and communicating well,” Gibb said of Columbia’s ability to disrupt the Cougars.
“It’s tough. I feel like we were out of rhythm, and it’s hard to try and get back into rhythm once you’re a little bit shaken up.”
The Cougars, who had won nine of their previous 10 games going into Wednesday, had earned their place in the WBIT championship game by leaning on stars like Gibb and Hamlin and complimenting their play with standout efforts from other role players.
While Gibb ended up with 24 points and Hamlin had 17 against Columbia, most of those points came with the game in hand.
“It’s never easy to lose, especially when a championship is on the line. For me, I’m feeling a lot of gratitude, especially towards this team,” Gibb said. “I think our last 10 games are a representation of just the people and the group of people that this team is and how genuine the relationships are, how much we love and care about each other on and off the court.”
It was clear almost from the jump that BYU’s poise just wasn’t the same as it had been the previous few games, as evidenced by the Cougars’ woeful shooting in the first half.
BYU (26-12) went into the break trailing 42-24 and shot 23.1% in the first half — that included shooting just 5 of 16 on layups. Far too often, the Cougars’ shooting touch wasn’t there, and it didn’t show up until late in the contest.
There were too many blown opportunities for BYU to realistically keep it competitive.
During the second quarter, Columbia star Riley Weiss scored as many points by herself (14) as the entire BYU team did in the period.
“I think that there were a little bit of, just the emotion of the game that factored in, especially early. It caused us to be a little out of rhythm, shooting shots, finishing at the rim. That had a lot to do with Columbia,” Cummard said.
“But I could feel it from them a little bit pregame, and I think early on just the moment for the first time really you could see there was a little of angst in it, and it’s something that I think they’ll really take away from this experience.”
The Cougars made just 4 of 23 3-pointers, while the Lions hit 8 of 23. BYU’s overall shooting percentage wasn’t much lower than Columbia’s by game’s end — at 34.2% to 36.9% — but the Lions held a significant edge at the free-throw line.
Columbia made 25 of 35 from the charity stripe, while the Cougars hit 8 of 15, a microcosm of the battle of aggression in the championship title, and how it favored the light blue clad Lions.
“It’s true credit to them. They stepped up and made them,” Cummard said. “... That’s a team that you have to go out and beat. They’re not going to beat themselves. They’re very well-coached and know exactly what they’re supposed to do, and they beat us today.
“We didn’t play great. We had some uncharacteristic things early, but they beat us. It’s a tremendous job by their staff how they had them focused and ready, and it’s going to be a great learning experience for us.”
Columbia was led by 23 points, six rebounds and four assists from Mia Broom, while Weiss, the Ivy League Player of the Year, had 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
“They’re just two really experienced, heady guards that have played at a high level against different teams,” Cummard said of Broom and Weiss.
Susie Rafiu (12 points, eight rebounds, three assists) helped the Lions own a 54-46 rebounding edge, and Columbia pushed BYU out of its comfort level for much of the night.
To the Cougars’ credit, they showed fight in the final period and made things interesting in front of a few hundred BYU fans who made their way to Kansas for the championship game.
It started at the defensive end, as BYU forced 11 turnovers in the fourth, and that helped feed into a 13-0 Cougars run that trimmed the deficit to 66-52.
The Lions reacted with a 6-0 run to stem the tide, though BYU countered with an 11-0 spurt to finally get it to a single-digit game at 72-63.
Fast break points helped feed that surge, as BYU scored 17 points in transition during the fourth quarter.
“I mean, for us, we just missed shots at first, but we just continued to forget about it and just keep shooting with confidence,” said Hamlin, who scored six points in the fourth quarter. Gibb had 11 in the final period.
“I think that’s what we did well the fourth quarter is we started hitting shots and started playing aggressively, and I think that’s what kind of kept us in the game, just kind of forget and just move on and keep shooting.”
Yes, it was too little, too late — Columbia wrapped up the win with nine free throws in the final minute — but the fight was consistent to what the Cougars had shown through much of the year.
The Cougars, with disappointment written across their face in the postgame press conference, knew the opportunity to win a title had eluded their grasp with an uncharacteristic performance against a more seasoned opponent.
BYU, though, showed grace in defeat — and determination to build off the late-season run that included six postseason wins between the WBIT and Big 12 tournaments.
“It’s going to sting a little bit, but it’s also going to fuel and also such a great experience for us to learn from and grow from,” Cummard said.