Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PROVO — It was hardly a love story as BYU women's basketball made its first trip to Oklahoma State as members of the Big 12 on the school's Taylor Swift night.
But for the Cowgirls' offense, things were going all too well.
In the first meeting between the two new conference foes for the first time since the year after 1989, Quincy Noble scored a season-high 30 points on 12-of-18 shooting, Lior Garzon and Hannah Busters each scored 13, and Oklahoma State forgot that BYU existed with an 82-50 rout at Gallagher-Iba Arena in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Lauren Gustin had 10 points and 10 rebounds to lead BYU (11-8, 1-5 Big 12), her nation-leading 17th double-double of the year. The senior from Salem High was just four rebounds shy of breaking the Cougars' all-time record of 1,482 held by Tina Gunn Robison since 1980.
Amari Whiting added 9 points, five rebounds and two steals for the Cougars; and Kailey Woolston supplied 9 points on 4-of-8 rebounds for BYU.
"That was a good, old-fashioned butt kicking," BYU coach Amber Whiting said. "They had an excellent game plan; hat's off to them for bringing it tonight. I was less than impressed with our fight and our effort in executing our game plan, and we've got to go back and work on ourselves."
The Cougars ranked 11th nationally in 3-point field goal percentage before Wednesday, but were held to just 3-of-18 from deep (38%) against the Cowgirls.
Entering Wednesday, Gustin led the nation with 279 rebounds, 15.5 rebounds per game, 10.6 defensive rebounds per game and 16 double-doubles. But the Cougars were outrebounded by the Cowgirls 39-35, while Gustin made 4-of-9 shots while going 0-of-1 from 3-point range and 2-of-7 from the free-throw line.
And then there were the turnovers.
"We were being soft and lazy with the ball, and too casual with it," Whiting said. "You can't do that — especially not in the Big 12."
took a chance, took a shot ✨#GoPokes | #RowdyOnpic.twitter.com/aoxTHa1FY4
— OSU Cowgirl Basketball (@OSUWBB) January 18, 2024
Noble poured in 19 points in the first half, and freshman Stailee Heard scored off an in-bounds turnover as part of a 20-2 run over the final 3:35 of the second quarter to take a 45-22 lead into the break.
Heard finished with 14 points and five rebounds in the first half en route to 18 points and six boards for the Cowgirls.
Oklahoma State connected with its last seven field goal attempts of the half and shot 55% overall with 24 points off 12 BYU turnovers en route to the 23-point halftime lead.
It didn't get any better for the visitors.
Oklahoma State forced 24 turnovers, including 17 steals, to power 36 points off turnovers against the Cougars. The Cowgirls outscored BYU 42-26 in the paint with 20 more fast-break points and a near-perfect 23-of-25 makes from the free-throw line.
BYU returns home Saturday to host Texas Tech, which improved to 14-5 (3-3 Big 12) with Wednesday's 71-63 home win over No. 24 Iowa State. Tipoff from the Marriott Center is scheduled for 4 p.m. MST on ESPN+.
