Disappointed but undeterred by WCC final, BYU women still have a lot to play for

LAS VEGAS — The hardest thing BYU women's basketball coach Jeff Judkins had to endure Tuesday afternoon when the final buzzer sounded on his team's 71-59 loss to Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference Tournament championship game was facing his players after the hardship.

Crushed and deflated, the Cougars still had plenty of reasons to keep playing. One loss, even in the conference tournament, doesn't deflate a season that stands at 26-3, ranked No. 15 in the country, with the No. 9 NET ranking by the NCAA.

It doesn't take away from the WCC regular-season title, the five wins over Power Six conference opponents, the program-record 25 victories in the regular season, or the litany of national honors, among the the No. 1 scoring margin in the nation at 21.2 points per game, No. 7 scoring offense averaging 78.2 points, or No. 3 in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.55.

It doesn't make the top-five team in field goal percentage or top-25 team in field goal percentage defense any less of an NCAA Tournament team. The Cougars will still hear their names called on Selection Sunday at 6 p.m. MST on ESPN, and they'll get ready to go play another game — hopefully several more, even — with one of the best lineups assembled on a women's basketball roster in school history, including two-time WCC Player of the Year Shaylee Gonzales, who was named second-team All-American by The Athletic and one of five finalists for the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year on Wednesday.

But in the moment, watching his players tear up and the crushing pain on the faces of his seniors, including four players who opted to return for a fifth year of eligibility to try to do something special? That's what brought tears to Judkins' eyes.

"We're going to be sad today," Judkins said after the loss. "But we had a great season. These guys are so fun to coach, and we worked so hard. Don't let one setback define what we've done the whole year. Walk out of here proud; you're conference champs. We've only done that twice in the 10 years we've been (part of the WCC). No one can take that away from you.

"Sometimes a loss gets you a little more focused. Hopefully that will be the case for us."

So what did the loss cost BYU? For starters, it will likely cost them several spots in the Associated Press Top 25, like it did the last time they lost. It's also a possible seed-line bump; ESPN's Charlie Creme projected the Cougars as a No. 5 seed with the conference's automatic qualifier. BYU will likely be closer to a No. 6 seed as an at-large candidate.

But other than that? Not much.

The Cougars will return to Provo and await their selection result, the destination of the beginning of their NCAA journey. Then, they'll start scouting another opponent, preparing for another game. Until then? These Cougars have work to do.

Gonzaga beat them, fair and square. A bigger, stronger, more athletic Zags team carved up the Cougars, holding them to 32% shooting and 5 of 23 from 3-point range, with barely three double-digit scorers on a team that averages anywhere from four to six offensive weapons per night.

Gonzaga didn't do anything they haven't done before; they just executed it this time, head coach Lisa Fortier said. Fighting as if their NCAA Tournament fortunes depended on it — maybe they did, maybe they didn't, though they at least guaranteed them a place outside the First Four with a win — the Zags took it to a BYU squad that had beat them twice during the regular season.

Gonzaga took it to the top-seeded Cougars with their size in a way they hadn't effectively done during the regular season. BYU was shocked and bullied for the better part of 40 minutes, and it's something the team will need to learn to address.

The Cougars stormed back from a 15-point halftime deficit in Spokane for the first victory, one that came 48 hours after their only loss in conference play, to a Portland team they later avenged. BYU then led wire-to-wire on the return trip in Provo, a senior night to remember in front of a Marriott Center-record crowd of over 6,000 people for a women's basketball standalone game.

There was no storming back Tuesday afternoon, though. Sure, there was fight — trimming the deficit from as much as 13 down to as little as three in the second half. But the Cougars led for just 20 seconds of game time, and none of it in the second half, as Gonzaga put its foot on BYU and never let up.

So what was the mood of BYU's locker room after the fact? It's kind of obvious, fifth-year senior Paisley Harding said.

"We're disappointed. But there's so much left for our team," said Harding, who had totaled 14 points and six rebounds on just 3-of-15 shooting. "We went out there and fought, and they fought harder unfortunately. They played really well tonight.

"But obviously, we're disappointed."

The Cougars will take to practice Thursday — not the 3 1/2 hour-long skirmishes that used to make up the team's schedule at the start of the year, but enough to recover, to work out, and to watch film.

There will definitely be a lot of film to watch, said Harding, whose husband Connor tipped off Utah Valley's run in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament late Wednesday night.

"We get a lot of opportunities to learn from the year, but not a lot to learn off losses," she added. "That's one of the blessings of this.

"I think this next practice is going to be even better. Our team has a lot of fight … I'm not worried about us. I think when we practice on Thursday, we're going to come in and work out butts off for the day."

Disappointed, but not downtrodden. The sun rose on Wednesday morning the same as it did Tuesday, only without another chance to win a conference tournament title — something that had been eating at the Cougars since Jill Townsend's buzzer-beater handed the Zags the automatic qualifier a year ago in front of a stunned BYU bench and an otherwise empty Orleans Arena.

There was no buzzer beater this year, but there was still stunned silence from the BYU bench at another rivalry loss, another defeat that sank to the pit of their collective stomachs.

Only one more WCC Tournament remains before the Cougars depart for the Big 12 in 2023. They'll try again another year, only without seniors Harding, former WCC Defensive Player of the Year Sara Hamson, Maria Albiero and Tegan Graham, among others. More matchups with Gonzaga will come, including after the two split conferences. Judkins guaranteed that.

But that's a thought for another day. For now, BYU still has a season to attend.

"We've been here before," Harding said. "We're going to bring our freshmen with us (to the NCAA Tournament), and we have a lot of high hopes and expectations. We are a relentless team that just continues to fight every single day."

Related topics