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LAS VEGAS — BYU's Kalani Purcell had just four points, one rebound and one assist for the BYU women's basketball team after one quarter of its West Coast Conference tournament quarterfinal.
Not surprisingly, then, BYU was tied with Pepperdine, 14-14 after 10 minutes.
But head coach Jeff Judkins stuck with her — and it's a good thing he did.
Purcell finished with a season-high 19 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists, and Lexi Eaton Rydalch tallied a game-high 28 points, 12 rebounds and five steals to lift the Cougars to a 72-59 win over Pepperdine on Friday at the Orleans Arena.
"Today wasn't the best we've played, but as a team, we've learned to be able to put games together," Judkins said. "Kalani had a really nice second half; she was a nice matchup with them and their inside game.
"They really bounced back nicely from our last game (a loss to Gonzaga); sometimes it's tough to bounce back from a loss."
Purcell's eight helpers marked her ninth game of seven assists or more for BYU, which got eight points each from Makenzi Morrison Pulsipher and Amanda Wayment. Kylie Maeda finished with seven points, four assists and two steals for the Cougars (25-5).
"After not starting as we wanted, I think we just came out with a more determined mindset on the small things we needed to do," Purcell said.
Pepperdine (7-24) came out strong and held BYU to 27 percent shooting in the first quarter, tying the game on Kelsey Brockway's jumper with two seconds left to take a 14-14 draw after one quarter. Brockway finished with 12 points, eight assists and two steals to lead the Waves.
But the second quarter was all BYU, and Purcell was a big reason for it. The junior from Hamilton, New Zealand assisted on the first field goal of the quarter, a layup to Rydalch with 6:39 on the clock, and then scored three of the next eight points to cap a 14-1 run that paced BYU to a 30-20 halftime lead.
The change started on the defensive end, where BYU held the Waves to two second-quarter field goals — both in the final 96 seconds of the period.
"We showed it in our defense, kept them to six points in the second quarter, and got a little bit of a lead through our offense," Purcell said. "But it was really just the small things we try to focus on that really helped us."
BYU's lead swelled to 20 points, 55-35 at the end of the third quarter. Wayment hit back-to-back stickback buckets to give the Cougars a 49-33 lead with 2:48 left in the quarter, helping the WCC regular season champs bounce back from its 73-55 loss at Gonzaga in the regular-season finale — a feat not lost on Pulsipher.
PEPP 14 6 15 24 — 59
BYU 14 16 25 17 — 72
PEPP: Robinson-Bacote 7; Stanback 11; Fecske 7; Green 7; Wallace 6; Jacobs 5; Blair 2; Pettepier 2; Brockway 12. BYU: Purcell 19; Maeda 7; Rydalch 28; Wayment 8; Broadhead 2.
"We had a tough loss the week before, and I wanted to get back on track," she said. "I know I did, and my team was really excited to get on the floor."
Devin Stanback paced the final six points of a 10-0 run over 1:37 of the final four minutes to pull within 14, 70-56. But Stanback left the game with 11 points, and the Waves never threatened the rest of the way. BYU outrebounded Pepperdine, 38-27 and assisted on 16-of-26 field goals.
"Our team is about defending, taking care of the ball and getting the ball to these two," said Judkins, signaling to Purcell and Pulsipher.
The Cougars advanced for the fifth straight year to the tournament semifinals, where they will face fourth-seeded Santa Clara (1 p.m. MST) Monday. BYU won the tourney title in 2012 and 2015.
"It's probably the most nervous and anxious I've been for a game in a long time," Pulsipher said. "This is the conference tournament, and what we've played for all season. I definitely had butterflies and a ton of energy."
