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PROVO — Under second-year head coach Amber Whiting, BYU women's basketball has put together spurts of strong basketball, but always lacked a hot start or a killer finish en route to a 2-8 start to the Cougars' first season in the Big 12.
They had both Wednesday night.
Lauren Gustin poured in 23 points and 16 rebounds, and Amari Whiting added 14 points, eight rebounds and nine assists as the Cougars stunned No. 18 Baylor 78-66 on National Girls and Women in Sports Day at the Marriott Center.
Emma Calvert added 14 points and five rebounds for BYU (13-11, 3-8 Big 12), and Kailey Woolston supplied 14 points and six boards for the Cougars in the wire-to-wire win.
"It's important to celebrate the wins, especially in the Big 12," said Amber Whiting through a freshly coated mop of wet hair and a new T-shirt moments after celebrating the win. "They are hard-fought, and you've got to celebrate those. It's never easy."
Darianna Littlepage-Buggs led Baylor (17-5, 6-5 Big 12) with 17 points and 12 rebounds, and Yaya Felder had 15 points before leaving the game in the final minute with a brutal facial injury.
But the Bears shot just 35% from the field and struggled on the glass with a 45-32 rebounding deficit against the nation's top individual board-getter in Gustin.
.@amari_whiting and the Cougars are cookin' 👩🍳#NCAAWBB x 🎥 ESPN+ / @byuwbb
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) February 8, 2024
pic.twitter.com/b5V4tDPe3q
The Cougars snapped a three-game losing skid with the effort, the first win over a top-25 opponent in coach Whiting's short tenure. And they celebrated like it, too, pouring water over everyone from bench players and team managers to the athletic trainer and sports information director after the game.
It was just the third Big 12 win of the year for BYU, and the first since Gustin broke the school's all-time rebounding record on Jan. 20 against Texas Tech. Amari Whiting, the freshman thrust into the starting lineup for all 23 games of her first season, played as much a role in those losses as anyone.
The former four-star recruit who previously committed to Oregon before her mother succeeded legendary coach Jeff Judkins two years ago combined to score 28 points on 9-of-19 shooting with 11 assists and nine turnovers during the Cougars' most recent three-game slide. But on Wednesday night, she was decisive and aggressive, shooting 5-of-8 from the field and 2-of-3 from 3-point range with six turnovers and two steals.
Most importantly, she did not want to lose. Not this time, not again.
"I hate losing," the former Gatorade Idaho Player of the Year at Burley High said. "I just wanted to win. I feel like the last couple of games, I haven't been doing everything I could to help my team win. Tonight I had to help my team win, being aggressive, getting up in someone's face; I just wanted to win."
The Bears were ranked No. 18 in the country, but BYU started hot, connecting on 3-of-6 3-pointers en route to a 22-11 lead after the first quarter.
That's when Whiting had 9 points on 3-of-3 shooting to go along with three rebounds and two assists, Gustin added 6 points and six rebounds, and the Cougars shot 50% from the field while keeping Bayer off the glass 14-8.
Calvert scored on the first play of the second quarter to push the lead to 13, and BYU poured in 20 points in the paint before the break, limited the Bears to 4 points off nine turnovers, and outrebounded the visitors 28-16 en route to the double-digit halftime lead.
"We transitioned well, and on defense, we were letting them only get one chance," Whiting said. "That's honestly what kept our lead; when we let them get 2-3 chances, they were bound to score a bucket, but being able to push the ball helped and rebounding — shout out to Lauren Gustin."
Baylor coach Nick Collen, the former Marquette standout who won WNBA Coach of the Year with the Atlanta Dream in 2018, gave plenty of credit to Whiting, too, as the Cougars jumped out to a 22-11 lead and never took their foot off the gas.
"They were the tougher team," Collen said. "They've had some moments where they've been really competitive; I know they were a possession away from beating K-State on the road.
"I thought they were the better team tonight, start to finish," she added. "Our defense didn't travel to Provo."
Baylor came out swinging to star the second half. But BYU connected on seven of their first nine shots en route to a 51-38 edge with 4:09 left in the third. The Bears scored 25 points in the third quarter to attempt a furious comeback, but BYU scored 24, including four 3-pointers to keep the lead 59-46 going into the final frame.
Baylor scored 5 of its first 8 points from the free-throw line while shooting just 1-of-6 from the field to start the fourth and couldn't finish the comeback.
"I'll probably wake up tomorrow and it will hit me," the second-year BYU coach said. "Hat's off to Baylor; they're a great team, and we've been watching them kill teams and win all year. She's a person I personally look up. … To come out of this game and to have these girls play like they did tonight is huge. It's something that will always be a special memory to me."
BYU hits the road Saturday to face Cincinnati at 10 a.m. MST. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and BYU Radio.
