KANSAS CITY — BYU women's basketball returns the fifth-most scoring in the Big 12 from a year ago, including a 3-point specialist from Alberta, Canada, who can "shoot the crap out of the ball."
And Delaney Gibb loves to have her.
Last year's Big 12 freshman of the year is reunited not just with most of her teammates from a year ago, but also a former high school rival in Hattie Ogden.
The senior forward appeared in 11 games last year after transferring from Buffalo, where she made 33 appearances, including 23 starts, for the Bulls in 2023-24.
Could Lee Cummard's first season as head coach in Provo feature two Canadian shooters from rival high schools? Gibb thinks so, referring to one of the Cougars' three seniors and one of 64 recipients nationally of the Kay Yow Servant Leader award by the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.
"I didn't know how too well then (in high school), but I knew she never stopped smiling and everyone seemed to like Hattie," said Gibb, a Raymond High graduate to Ogden's Magrath in southern Alberta, Canada. "Now being able to be her teammate and become good friends with her, she really is such a special person. She's a great teammate, she's a great leader for our team, and basketball-wise, I love pick-and-roll with Hattie because she can shoot the crap out of the ball.
"When I get going downhill and the big has to help, Hattie is going to have 3s for days."
Ogden averaged 1.3 points and 0.6 rebounds per game in limited action as a junior in her first year at BYU. By her own admission, the 6-foot-1 forward initially struggled with the physical play of opposing Big 12 defenses.
She may not be the highest scoring Canadian on the team — Gibb averaged 17.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game en route to unanimous Big 12 freshman of the year honors a year ago. But coaches and teammates are hopeful she can spark something at least similar to her final year at Buffalo, when she was the Bulls' fifth leading scorer averaging 7.5 points per game on a 19-14 team that played for a MAC Tournament title.
Add it to other role players like Brinley Cannon, who started just four games as a freshman but appeared in 30, averaging 4.5 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.0 assists per game, and the Cougars may have a supporting cast around Gibb.
"Brin's a very hungry player; she's going to go get one," Ogden said. "But she's also one of the most selfless players. She knows when to get a bucket, and when to make a play for her teammate."
Either way, Gibb is much happier to play with Ogden than against her.
The two were heated rivals in high school, though Ogden was two years older, in a traditional blue-vs-red rivalry of two schools just 18 kilometers apart.
"We had played together, too, in club ball," Ogden said of Gibb. "But in high school, we were rivals."
Added Gibb: "There was some bad blood."
None was worse, Ogden said, than the provincial final her senior year. In a smaller gym with limited attendance due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gibb — who would go on to win Ms. Alberta Basketball honors in back-to-back seasons — nailed a crucial 3-pointer in the final minute to help Raymond hold off its rival, 80-75 that included a future college teammate who averaged 24 points per game on 42.8% shooting from deep.
"The gym was packed," Ogden said. "There were people sitting on the ground, watching from the hallway. It was a true rivalry."
A rivalry was stoked — and eventually, a friendship.
Gibb and Ogden will play key roles in Cummard's first season as a head coach; there's a reason that both, along with sophomore Brinley Cannon, joined the first-time head coach at Big 12 media days in Kansas City to represent the team picked to finish 10th in the conference by league coaches.
In between posing for photos and filming TikTok videos, the duo spoke with each of the Big 12's five broadcast media partners, as well as local, regional and national media about the state of the program a year after firing Amber Whiting.
For Ogden, it's a dream true. The Cougars' "other Canadian" grew up a lifelong BYU fan, one who would pile into the car with her family and drive nearly 12 hours for Cougar football games. Sometimes those trips included watching her uncles Aaron and Jadon Wagner.
The tradition continues to this day with Ogden's cousin Pierson Watson, a freshman linebacker on this year's team (another cousin Enoch will join the team in January as a freshman quarterback).
"It's a surreal experience for me to be playing here, with Brigham Young across my chest," she said. "I'm here for BYU, coaching change, whatever; I just want to be a Cougar."
