Thanks to recent football and men’s basketball matchups which all resulted in losses, BYU fans have learned to really loathe Texas Tech.
Thus, Cougar Nation should be mighty proud of what its women’s basketball squad accomplished Wednesday night.
BYU scored a 73-61 upset victory over the No. 19-ranked Lady Raiders at the Marriott Center, toppling the Big 12’s top team for Lee Cummard’s first ranked win at the helm of the Cougars’ program.
“I’m just really proud of the group and glad to see their hard work paying off and be rewarded for how close of a group it is, and how hard they work and prepare for these games,” Cummard told reporters after the win. “(We) had a great couple days of practice, great shoot around this morning. I just want (the players) to know that, you know, they’re a really good team and they’re rewarded for that tonight.”
BYU trailed for less than a minute to open the night before quickly pulling ahead and never looking back, leading by as many as 17 points against a Texas Tech team that had yet to lose on the road and was 19-1 prior to arriving in Provo.
“I felt like at least tonight, regardless of who they have, our five were more connected and tighter as a group, and we were the better five on the court,” Cummard said.
The Cougars shot a collective 47.3% from the field and 44.4% from 3-point range — a far cry from their previous season average of 29.7% — while feasting down low for 36 paint points.
Best exemplifying BYU’s fight was center Lara Rohkohl, who finished with 15 points, eight rebounds and a game-high plus/minus of +15, refusing to let the ultra-physical Lady Raiders push her around in the post.
“They were a little aggressive down there, but you know, we stood against it and we did a good job down there,” Rohkohl said. “The guards were giving me perfect passes into my hands, and I just had to go up and finish it.”
Feeding Rohkohl often was star sophomore point guard Delaney Gibb, who fought through double teams for 18 points, five rebounds and six assists while swiping four steals on the defensive end of the floor.
“I know that if I’m getting hounded and double-teamed, I can kick to shooters and pass to Lara and they’re gonna make plays out of it,” Gibb said. “And so I think we played super connected tonight and just moved the ball really well, which opened up great looks for us.”
Some of that ball movement came from Rohkohl, who cashed in two assists by kicking outside to Gibb for a pair of 3-pointers.
“Being in the paint and kicking out to a 3, in my opinion, is the best shot that there is,” Gibb said. “It’s really easy to make, all your momentum is going to the hoop. (Rohkohl) was fighting hard in the paint, and so for her to unselfishly spray out to shooters on the outside is never going to go unnoticed.”
BYU’s leading scorer was freshman guard Olivia Hamlin, who put up the best performance of her young career — especially considering the competition — by posting 20 points of 9 of 15 shooting with four rebounds and two steals.
Eleven of Hamlin’s 20 points came in the first quarter to set the tone for the remainder of the contest, and she ended the night with six fourth quarter points to help bury Texas Tech for good.
“She was on it from the jump,” Cummard said of Hamlin. “… Tonight it was hard to keep her off the court. She was hugely impactful on the defensive end with those steals early, but even late, just with constant pressure.
“People have a really hard time going around her, and people have a really hard time keeping her in front. (She is a) huge, huge asset to the group every game, but tonight she just brought it, you know, played with force and made plays for the group.”
Defensively, BYU was outstanding, holding the Lady Raiders to 33.3% shooting and scoring 24 points off of 21 forced turnovers. The Cougars clamped down hardest in the fourth quarter, allowing just three makes on 16 field goal attempts.
“It was the most connected we’ve been all year defensively,” Cummard said. “We’ve been a pretty good defensive team, you know, visually, but also metrically speaking.
“… I just thought that we minimized some of the lapses that we’ve had in some of our losses. … It shows growth in what we’re doing, but just overall, the connectivity on that (defensive) end was really, really good as a group.”
With the win, BYU is now 15-4 on the campaign and has already matched last year’s mark of four victories in Big 12 play — a number Cummard’s Cougars will certainly increase given their 11 remaining conference contests, along with the newfound confidence from toppling a team such as Texas Tech.
“I feel like we’ve had a pretty tough schedule thus far, and so it’s kind of like a breath of air (to win),” Gibb said. “I feel like this game is going to bring so much confidence to our team. We have a ton of young players, some of which this is their first year of college basketball, and so I think this kind of just reminds us that we can compete at the highest level. I think going into our next conference games, we’re going to be hungry to do the same thing every single night.”
