- BYU women's basketball defeated Arizona State 71-62 handing them their first loss.
- Delaney Gibb scored 18 points with eight rebounds leading BYU's strong performance.
- BYU outrebounded Arizona State 54-25 showing toughness and resilience after TCU loss.
PROVO — BYU women's basketball looked to rebound after a humbling loss to No. 8 TCU on Wednesday night, a loss to one of the top teams in the country led by elite point guard Olivia Miles.
Rebound is exactly what the Cougars did Saturday — literally.
Delaney Gibb scored 18 points and tied a season high with eight rebounds as BYU handed Arizona State its first loss of the season 71-62 in front of 3,400 fans in the Marriott Center.
Sydney Benally added 16 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals for the Cougars (13-2, 2-1 Big 12), who outrebounded the Sun Devils 54-25 and held the visitors to nine offensive boards.
Olivia Hamlin supplied 11 points, three rebounds, two assists and four steals off the bench, and Kambree Barber pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.
"Toughness. First to floor. Those are staples of who we are," BYU coach Lee Cummard said of the No. 49-rated team in the NET. "Tremendous effort from most, especially Kambree and Bola, who just said, 'I can jump higher and I'm longer than all of you.' I love seeing that.
"I think for us to be what we need to be, toughness has to be who we are," he added."
Gabby Elliott had a game-high 21 points to lead Arizona State (15-1, 2-1 Big 12), and McKinna Brackens, Heloisa Carrera and Marley Washenitz each scored 10 in Arizona State's program record-snapping first loss in 16 games.
The Sun Devils did plenty that was befitting of the No. 41 team in the NET rankings, including scoring 16 points off 26 turnovers. They also held the Cougars to shoot 38% from the field, including 26% on 10-of-39 from deep.
BACK TO BACK THREES TO PUT THE COUGS AHEAD 🤯
— BYU Women's Hoops (@byuwbb) January 3, 2026
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But BYU took 13 more shots including six more makes powered by 26 offensive rebounds.
"I don't like to be sitting here saying a lot of credit to BYU, but I also don't like to be sitting here saying we got outworked — and they outworked us — on rebounds," Arizona State coach Molly Miller said. "That will be fixed."
Benally canned a pair of triples to help the Cougars hang around, down just 18-15 after the first quarter.
The freshman from Albuquerque, New Mexico hit a third with 8:26 left in the half to help the Cougars open the second quarter on an 8-2 run to take a 23-20 edge.
But Elliott had 11 points with two assists in the first half, and Arizona State cashed in 13 BYU turnovers for 11 points en route to a 34-28 halftime lead.
The Sun Devils sleep-walked into the second half, missing on their first eight field-goal attempts including 0-for-3 from deep.
That opened the door for BYU to take a 42-38 when Hamlin and Barber knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers with 4:38 left in the third.
The Cougars opened the third on a 14-4 run, held the Sun Devils scoreless from the field for the final 4:21, and out-rebounded the visitors 19-6 in the third quarter en route to a 45-42 edge with 10 minutes remaining.
That included four rebounds from Gibb, who added another in the fourth quarter to fuel her career high.
"Rebounding is something you can control, and that was something I wanted to go and do in the second half," Gibb said. "I knew second-chance opportunities were going to help us blow the game open, and get more chances to knock down shots."
BYU led by as much as 11 on Lara Rohkohl's outback with 2:20 remaining, but the visitors weren't done.
Brackens — who had a game-high 31 points including the game-winning free throws Wednesday in a win over Utah — capped an 8-2 run to pull the Sun Devils within four, 66-62 with 48 seconds left.
But Gibb made a pair of free throws on the other end, and the Cougars made 11-of-14 foul shots overall to hold on for the top-50 win.
"We talked about them being undefeated; we played two teams this week that are among the only eight undefeated teams left," Cummard said. "We've played three of them (including 14-0 Vanderbilt) already this season. They're a really good team. But you want to protect your home court, and they are going to win a lot of games.
"Going from a tough loss to TCU," he added. "It kind of put us on our heels going into that Thursday film session. We spent Thursday teaching ball screens, reads and not focusing on the negatives. We had two decent practices, and now we're competitors. This is what we live for."
BYU continues Big 12 play on the road for back-to-back games beginning Tuesday at Arizona (6 p.m. MST, ESPN+).
