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PROVO — The BYU women's basketball team has had to grow up in a lot of ways over the past 10 days.
After back-to-back road losses to Wyoming and then-No. 12 Utah, the Cougars found more growth Tuesday afternoon in a return home.
Amari Whiting had 19 points, three assists and three steals; and Lauren Gustin supplied 21 points, 21 rebounds and two assists as BYU women's basketball snapped a two-game losing skid with a 72-66 win Tuesday afternoon over in-state rival Utah State at the Marriott Center.
Emma Calvert added 14 points and eight rebounds for the Cougars (7-2), who outrebounded the Aggies 41-34 and scored 23 points off 16 turnovers.
Cheyenne Stubbs poured in 21 points to lead Utah State (3-5), and Skye Miller added 10 points and seven rebounds for the Aggies — who cut the deficit to a single possession but never led in their second-straight loss and third-straight to a Division I team.
"They battled through a lot of things in the last little bit, and they fought through some adversity with things on the court and off the court," BYU coach Amber Whiting said. "I'm just proud that they stuck it out, stuck together, and got the win."
Shorthanded after point guard Nani Falatea stepped away from the program, per Whiting, Gustin had a first half double-double — her nation-leading seventh of the year and 63rd of her career — as the Cougars jumped out to a 20-8 lead en route to a 39-29 halftime advantage.
Falatea, the third-year point guard who started all 32 games for the Cougars a year ago, was hindered by an injury to open the 2023-24 season at BYU. But after starting and scoring 5 points on 1-of-9 shooting, the former East High and Herriman standout was not on the bench Tuesday against the Aggies — what would have been her fourth game of the season.
In her place, Whiting returned to her usual lineup that included Lauren Davenport at the four as the Cougars jumped out to a hot start. The bulk of the minutes in the nine-player rotation came from the freshman Whiting, Gustin, Calvert, Kaylee Smiler and Kailey Woolston, who had 8 points, five assists and four rebounds on a night where the former Lone Peak standout shot just 3-of-11 from the field.
But in-state rivalry games are rarely won at halftime, and Tuesday afternoon's decision was no different.
"When you get in these games, if you let them hang on a little bit it can be really close," Whiting said. "It obviously can get physical, and coaches sometimes like to make it that way, maybe junk it up a little bit. But we stood our ground, and I was really proud of them. We had a lot of learning lessons down the stretch with a lot of freshmen … and come January, those lessons learned will help come to fruition."
Utah State held BYU scoreless for more than four minutes in the third quarter, using a 9-0 run before Stubbs' triple with 1:22 remaining the quarter culled the deficit to six, 49-43.
The Aggies outscored BYU 16-11 in the third quarter of a 5-point game, 50-45, with one quarter remaining.
Ivory Finley's and-one play helped the Aggies pull within a single possession, 53-50, with 7:38 to go, and Utah State had the chance to tie after Calvert's turnover on the other end.
In that moment, Whiting found Woolston in transition off a steal at the top of the key, and then scored 8 points in the final six minutes — including a pair of free throws with 16 seconds remaining — to help the Cougars hold on.
"Those two are really smart and know how each other is; Amari knows that Kailey is a shooter and can stretch the floor," Whiting said. "That gives her driving lanes, and Kailey knows to shoot whenever she's open. … Playing off each other, they've been really good — and they live together, too, so that chemistry is developing. They didn't hardly know each other before they showed up, and now they're hanging out all the time and being best friends. Just seeing that growth and what they can do together is going to be huge."
