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PROVO — After a sluggish first half that saw them clinging to a four-point lead, the BYU women's basketball team knew it wasn't going to beat visiting Loyola-Marymount with offense.
Defense would have to do.
Lexi Eaton Rydalch totaled 28 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and three steals, and the Cougars held the Lions to a 36 percent effort from the field, to pull away for a 75-61 win Thursday night at the Marriott Center.
"Lexi is the most talented kid I've ever coached," BYU coach Jeff Judkins said of his leading scorer. "When she lets it come, she's great. I thought in moments tonight, she played really well.
"When she rebounds like that, we're way more effective."
BYU (15-4, 7-1 WCC) didn't shoot particularly well, either, at 35.7 percent. But the Cougars outrebounded the Lions 51-40 and forced 21 turnovers to claim their seventh-straight win in league play. Leading rebounder Kalani Purcell added 18 points and 16 rebounds for the Cougars — the ninth double-double of the season for the Hutchinson Community College transfer.
For Rydalch, rebounding was the key — both personally and to the rest of her team.
"I really feel like a key for me and my game is rebounding," she said. "When I'm crashing the boards, it feels like I'm being aggressive and getting involved. I tried to focus on that this game, and it paid off.
"Rebounding takes a lot of pressure on me, and I think it's best for the team."
Defensively, the Cougars held LMU (7-12, 3-5 WCC) to just two shots from the field in the third quarter — a key stretch that included two separate 7-0 runs to take a commanding lead into the final period.
Makenzi Morrison Pulsipher said that's all the coaches focused on in the locker room, too: defense.
"We had to come out," said Pulsipher, who scored 12 of her 15 points in the second half. "I feel like — and it's not a good pattern to have — but we tend to do that a little more than we should. Sometimes we need to be woken up, but at least we woke up."
Loyola-Marymount hit the mark early with an 11-9 lead. But BYU tied the game at 13-13 on Rydalch's layup with 3:31 left in the first quarter as part of a 12-2 quarter-ending run. BYU then outscored the Lions 13-4 to pull away during the second quarter, going up 33-19 on Pulsipher's 3-point play following a fast break with 4:08 to go until halftime.
"I'm blessed. I've got some good players," Judkins said. "When we're rolling and we're going, we're a tough team. It's when we get out of what we are trying to do, we don't do our things best."
But the Lions ended the half on a 10-0 run, aided by two fouls each on Rydalch and Purcell, to pull within 33-29 at the break. Deanna Johnson had 10 of her 15 team-high points in th first half to pace LMU, which got eight points from Cheyanne Wallace and pulled within four on Johnson's layup with 15 seconds remaining in the second quarter. Wallace finished the night with 15 points and three blocked shots.
Judkins had seen enough; he put in center Micaelee Orton to start the second half — and the Cougars responded with seven-straight points that included back-to-back defensive stops from the Kearns High alum.
"That's the reason I started Orton. She's my best defending center, and I wanted her to set the tone defensively," Judkins said. "I think we locked in better; we got beat on a couple of plays, but did a better job of not getting them where they want to go."
The Cougars then used another 7-0 run at the end of the period to go up 49-33 on Pulsipher's jumper with 1:29 left and take a commanding 51-36 lead into the final period. Pulsipher held LMU's No. 2 scorer Leslie Lopez-Wood in check with 10 points on 4-of-11 shooting, and leading scorer Sophie Taylor had just three points — nine points below her average.
Even the Lions' made shots often came with a flurry of Pulsipher's active hands.
"That's what I bank on: I know there's nothing worse than to think your shot is going to be interrupted," Pulsipher said. "I try to keep my hands off as much as possible. But if it's in front of me, that's where my goal is.
BYU stretched its lead to 20 when Rydalch found Cassie Broadhead for a long jumper with 7:47 left to go to 58-38, and cruised from there, eventually pulling the starters in favor of several freshmen by the final moments.
BYU wraps up the first half of WCC play Saturday at 2 p.m. against Pepperdine. The Cougars go to the road for six of their final nine games — but Rydalch likes where her team is at as one of the top 35 teams in the Associated Press poll in her final season of college basketball.
"I think we are in a great spot, and we've taken care of business at home," Rydalch said. "That's huge in conference. And we've gained confidence when we are under pressure. That gives us confidence going into road games when you have to stick together."
