Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
KANSAS CITY — BYU's stay in Kansas City was short-lived.
The 12th-seeded Cougars opened up the Big 12 Tournament with a 81-69 loss to 13th-seeded UCF Wednesday afternoon, ending an up-and-down season for BYU in Amber Whiting's third season as the women's head coach.
UCF guard Kaitlin Peterson was just too much for BYU to contain, especially in the second half. The senior guard had 25 points in the second half to will her team to victory — almost single-handily — en route to a dominant 35-point performance.
"Just knowing that this game could have been my last game, so just going hard every possession and just, you know, not giving up," Peterson said of her second-half performance.
And if it wasn't Peterson dicing up BYU's defense in the post, it was the Cougars' own mistakes that limited the team's chances in the second half. BYU finished the first-round game with 18 turnovers, which led to 27 points on the other end for the Knights.
To add to the turnover troubles, UCF outrebounded BYU 40-30 to give the Knights 19 second-chance points and all the momentum to live another day.
Whiting said the game plan coming into Wednesday was to limit turnover and compete for rebounds — a season-long plea — but her team couldn't get the job done in the end.
"I think we didn't stay focused on the keys that we needed," Whiting said. "They got some easy ones in transition, got a couple of easy ones off offensive rebounds, and then we let Kaitlin get away from us. We needed to lock her down.
"We have lost eight games this season by 10 points or less, and we have been right there in a bunch of them," she added. "I see the good that we have. I see we need to clean up little things in the end. But turnovers and offensive rebounds have plagued us all season, and so that needs to be better."
BYU opened up the game controlling a 6-point lead and eventually held onto a 22-20 advantage at the end of the opening quarter — the first such lead against its opponent in nine games.
But the Knights flipped the script to control a 4-point lead at halftime in a quarter where the Cougars only scored 7 points and UCF managed just 13 points. The Cougars answered the call in the opening minutes of the third quarter, however, and hit three consecutive 3-pointers to reclaim a narrow lead.
That lead was short-lived, though, as UCF continued to be more aggressive around the basket to draw contact and to get ensuing and-one buckets to eventually build up a 7-point lead. And that's where Peterson went to work to put the Cougars away for good.
BYU got some late momentum in the third quarter on the back of senior forward Kendra Gillispie, who quickly managed 7 points in the post and at the free-throw line to reclaim a small lead for a time. One of the biggest momentum swings during that stretch was a charge that Gillispie took to give BYU a chance.
"She inserts her will every day in practice," Whiting said of Gillispie. "And seeing her bring that out was really nice. For me, when she took that charge, that was awesome. And those are the little plays and the momentum plays we love to see."
The Knights could smell victory, though, and used a 23-12 fourth quarter to pull away for good.
"Proud of the way that our players played today," UCF head coach Sytia Messer said. "We were very focused and collective as a team. ... I think we locked down on some defensive stops, and in transition offense we were able to finish."
The Cougars were led in scoring by Big 12 Freshman of the Year Delaney Gibb, who had 15 points and three assists in the loss. Amari Whiting added 14 points, five rebounds and two assists, while Kemery Congdon contributed an additional 11 points and four rebounds.
The Knights advance to the second round of the Big 12 Tournament, where they'll take on Kansas State on Thursday (10 a.m. MST, ESPN+).
