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PROVO — Head coach Jeff Judkins could see it in the BYU women’s basketball team from the opening play: the Cougars were tired.
After three games in six days, no one would blame them. The Cougars needed a spark to will themselves to their third-straight win.
Enter senior post Morgan Bailey.
Bailey and guard Lexi Eaton combined for 53 points as the Cougars ground out a 64-53 win over Weber State at the Marriott Center. The senior from Timpanogos High School had a career-high 28 points to go along with eight rebounds and two blocks.
Eaton finished with 25 points, nine rebounds and three assists as the only other Cougar in double figures.
“They were sluggish tonight,” Judkins said. “The best thing you can do is sub, and hope your subs give you energy. But they were tired tonight. It’ll be addressed tomorrow. I told them they have to give us energy.”
Weber jumped out to an 8-6 lead with 12:24 left in the first half after Jocelyn Adams drove to the rim, but BYU responded with a 14-2 run to take control. Eaton angrily scored on back-to-back plays to put the Cougars (6-3) up 23-14 with 6:17 to go before halftime, and BYU led the rest of the way.
“I’m really lucky; I’ve got two players who can create their own shot and cause a lot of problems,” Judkins said. “We did a good job of executing, and when we needed a basket, we’d execute the way we did.”
Bailey led all scorers with 14 first-half points, and Eaton added 10 points, five rebounds and two assists for BYU at the break.
Both teams started slowly in the second half, but BYU did just enough to keep hold of its lead. Bailey scored an over-the-shoulder lay-up with 15:22 left for a game-high 16-point lead for BYU at 38-22, and every time the Wildcats (4-5) would attempt a comeback, the two dominant scorers would squash it.
“It’s kind of nice when they aren’t double-teaming me all the time,” Bailey said. “I heard (Weber State post Jalen Carpenter) say ‘I got her; I don’t need help’ and I got excited. My teammates did a nice job of getting me the ball inside. I wish I could’ve made a few more shots with them. But we’ll take it.”
Bailey earned her career-high 28th point on an over-the-top feed from Ashley Garfield to go up 57-46, and the Cougars coasted from there.
Eaton stuffed the stat sheet, finishing one rebound shy of her second double-double of the year, and her three assists being just two shy of her career-best.
“My overall focus is just to play a complete game,” Eaton said. “I’ve been working on developing other aspects of my game so I can be a threat all over the court. I think I’ve been doing a better job of that, and when I do that, it opens up things for my teammates. That’s the ultimate goal.”
But the BYU bench will be reminded of this game several times this week after it scored only four points with four rebounds and three assists from Cassie Broadhead.
“That’s something we’ve emphasized these past few weeks,” Eaton said. “Everybody needs to do their role, and everybody should attack. If everybody is in attack mode, it opens all kinds of things up. Sometimes it’s our night, sometimes it’s others. But we’ve got to do it all together.”
Adams led the Wildcats with 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Regine Okoye supplied 11 points for Weber State.
BYU’s next game will come on the road at Utah, a game Judkins said his players need no introduction or motivation to play.
“We should’ve got them last year, so I think we’ll go in with that mentality,” Bailey said. “We need to get the rotten taste out of our mouth.”
