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PROVO — For the first quarter of Saturday afternoon’s West Coast Conference women’s basketball game in the Marriott Center, BYU struggled to find any offense.
A move to a four-guard set was all they needed — with an assist from sophomore sharpshooter Brenna Chase.
Chase had a career-high 23 points and seven rebounds, along with four steals and four assists, as the BYU women’s basketball team pulled away for a 65-47 win Saturday afternoon over Santa Clara in the Marriott Center.
Cassie Broadhead Devashrayee added 21 points, eight rebounds and four assists for the Cougars (10-7, 5-1 WCC), who got eight points, six rebounds and two blocks from freshman Sara Hamson.
"We’ve never seen a zone like that," BYU coach Jeff Judkins said. "Brenna Chase had an outstanding game; her pressure and everything she did tonight was really positive for us. That’s what is nice about this team — last week, it was Malia (Nawahine, who had seven points Saturday); this week, it was Brenna. I’m really happy for that."
Morgan McGwire led Santa Clara (5-12, 1-5 WCC) with 23 points, eight rebounds and three steals.
"My team really helped me to up my defense and up the pressure, with Cassie denying the wings and helping us to get a couple of steals," said Chase, who was scoreless in the first quarter. "It definitely spread out their defense, and helped us to get open shots."
With four guards on the court, and Devashrayee guarding the post alongside center Hamson, the 5-foot-9 Chase went to work after shooting 0-for-3 in the first quarter.
"We went small, they countered, and tried to post Cassie up — but she did a good job of guarding that," Judkins said. "People don’t know that she is a pretty good post defender; she played a lot of that in high school.
"She feels pretty comfortable in that."
Chase unleashed nine points in the second quarter, including a 3-pointer with just over four minutes left in the half that gave the Cougars their first lead of the game, 21-18.
The Cougars unearthed back-to-back 3-pointers at the end of the half from Devashrayee and freshman Paisley Johnson to take a 29-26 halftime lead.
Hamson opened the second half with a bucket just 10 seconds after the break, and Chase added a three from the wing about a minute later. That gave BYU a 34-26 lead with 8:55 left in the third, and the Cougars were off to the races.
"She calmed herself down and did a good job of knowing what she needs to do for this team," Judkins said of Chase. "She made some nice drives tonight, and it’s good to see her hit the threes in that zone when she had the opportunity."
Chase extended the Cougars’ lead to 43-34 on back-to-back buckets, the latest being a transition feed from Devashrayee with 3:28 remaining in the third.
Defensively, BYU held its visiting opponent scoreless for the final three minutes of the third quarter, thanks in large part to Devashrayee. Playing the stretch-four position, the senior point guard helped hold Taylor Berry scoreless in the second half for nine points and eight rebounds overall.
Chase’s fifth 3-pointer in the final minute helped the Cougars to a 50-36 lead with 10 minutes to go.
"Juddie tells me to shoot it when I am open, so I shoot it when I am open,” Chase said. "It’s as simple as that.
"We’re starting to play some of our best basketball, everybody making the extra pass and trying to make the best shot we can get. I think it’s really helping us to play well right now."
Both teams struggled through large portions of the fourth quarter. But BYU held the Broncos to 38 percent shooting to pull away for the double-digit win.
"When we looked at the schedule, we felt like we could go 5-1 or 6-0 (to start conference play); we felt like Saint Mary’s was the hardest one," Judkins said. "We had a chance to win that game, and we knew the two home games would be hard. But we’ve only had to do this midweek travel once, and we’re sitting good. It’s a big week next week, against Loyola Marymount and San Diego on the road.
"I think we’re playing better. But we still have some things to figure out."
