3 takeaways as BYU women's basketball (unofficially) opens Lee Cummard era

PROVO — BYU women's basketball picked up where it left off in the first (unofficial) game of the Lee Cummard era.

Delaney Gibb had 13 points, four assists and three rebounds, and the Cougars used a 26-8 fourth quarter to pull past Division II Western Colorado 86-50 in an exhibition game Tuesday night.

Freshman Sydney Benally added 15 points, three rebounds and two assists for the Cougars, and former Snow Canyon star Olivia Hamlin added 12 points, six rebounds and three dimes in her own unofficial BYU debut.

Western Colorado's Ivey Schmidt led all scorers with 21 points and eight rebounds, doing most of her damage with 13 points in the first half.

Here are three takeaways from a pre-Halloween first look before BYU's season opener Nov. 5 against Coastal Carolina (2 p.m. MST, ESPN+).

Gibb leads this team, but …

Gibb, the reigning Big 12 freshman of the year, continues to lead the team, as she connected on 4-of-14 field goals including 2-of-9 from 3-point range in 26 minutes Tuesday night.

The sophomore's next step will include a leadership role on a team that boasts just two seniors in College of Charleston transfer Lara Rohkohl and former Buffalo transfer Hattie Ogden, as well as redshirt juniors Ari Mackey-Williams and Marya Hudgins.

Mackey-Williams played her first competitive minutes in two years after back-to-back seasons were cut short with an ACL injury before they began. Hudgins, too, returned from a long injury layoff to total 9 points, five rebounds and two assists in her first minutes since a knee injury seven games into last season.

"She's impactful. If we can just get her to stop blowing kisses every time, and use that energy on the defensive end, we'd be good," Cummard said. "She's a high-energy player, and if she's not in foul trouble, she can really get us extra possessions on the offensive glass and make plays that will help us win."

Dynamic freshmen backcourt will play — a lot

Two freshmen didn't play like freshmen, at least in quantity.

Benally started and played 24 minutes, including eight minutes in the final quarter when she connected on all four of her shot attempts including both 3-pointers. The freshman from Albuquerque scored on three of four possessions during a 10-0 run in the fourth quarter, including a pair of 3-pointers and a fastbreak finish with 4:56 remaining.

Hamlin wasn't in the starting rotation, but she was one of the first subs and played 26 minutes, connecting on 5-of-13 shots including a pair of triples.

That's by design.

"We just both want to bring that defensive energy, a lockdown defense, and try to not get tired," Benally said. "I'd like us to be described as mosquitoes, and we try to bring that."

Once more, with feeling

Eventually BYU did what a power conference team should do against an RMAC opponent playing on the second night of a back-to-back.

The Cougars opened the fourth quarter with a 14-4 run, stretching a close game as high as 67-46 on Gibb's putback with 5:54 to go.

BYU took a lot of threes — 35, to be specific — and made 12. They also crashed the glass 47-37, including 18 offensive rebounds and picked up eight blocks against the undersized team from Gunnison, Colorado.

But if anything, continuity may be a compliment to a team that lost three of its top four scorers — two to graduation (Emma Calvert, Kemery Congdon) and one to the transfer portal (Amari Whiting) — as well as their head coach.

"We feel like we can play a few more bodies than we have recently," said Cummard, whose 11-deep rotation did not include Kambree Barber due to minor injury. "I felt that as a player here that we could do that with teams when they came to the Marriott Center.

"I think we can get to that place with our group. … It just wears on you, wave after wave of fresh bodies."

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