BYU women's basketball rallies for road win at Arizona State, setting up key regular-season finale

PROVO — Arizona State was running BYU women's basketball off its home court by halftime Wednesday night, when Heloisa Carrera had 10 points and McKinna Brackens added 7 points and a pair of rebounds.

But Delaney Gibb was just getting warmed up.

The super sophomore poured in 18 of her game-high 24 points in the second half as the Cougars rallied from a 31-18 halftime deficit to clinch the season sweep of the Sun Devils, 66-61 at Desert Financial Arena.

Olivia Hamlin added 16 points for the Cougars, who improved to 19-10 and 8-9 in Big 12 play after tying for their lowest scoring half in a season in Tempe, Arizona.

Lara Rohkohl supplied 11 points and 10 rebounds as BYU outrebounded the hosts 40-37.

"It was a tremendous environment, tremendous college basketball game, tremendous grit and resilience from our group tonight," BYU coach Lee Cummard said after the game. "They're well coached. They got a great group, and we're fortunate to come out on top today, but we had some girls really make some crucial plays in the game at key moments. Then we had a couple of girls who just rebounded like crazy today. That ultimately was the difference."

That, and a (another) special performance by Gibb.

Just four days after going off for a career-high 37 points in a double-digit win over rival Utah, the Raymond, Alberta, native erupted for 10 points in the third quarter against the Sun Devils, powering a 28-11 run through the third quarter that helped turn the 13-point deficit into 46-43 edge.

Gibb also finished with seven rebounds and six assists, and Hamlin — the reigning Big 12 co-freshman of the week — scored 8 points during the fourth quarter to help the Cougars pull away.

"I'm just really happy to be here," said Hamlin, last year's 4A state player of the year at Snow Canyon who is averaging 12.5 points per game as a freshman. "It's been so fun, and I feel like I learn and grow every day playing with all these girls and learning from great coaches. It's been awesome to be doing pretty well with our team, too."

After shooting just 26.9% from the field before halftime, BYU closed with 14-of-31 made field goals after the break and converted 15-of-17 free throws to hand Arizona State just the second home loss under first-year head coach Molly Miller.

The win puts BYU in position for a first-round bye in next week's Big 12 championship tournament in Kansas City. The Cougars' 8-9 record is tied with Kansas and Kansas State for 10th place — and just a game behind ASU, Iowa State and Utah for seventh.

The top-four seeds in the standings — led by No. 11 TCU, which clinched the Big 12 title with an 83-70 win over Cincinnati — will earn a double-bye to Friday's quarterfinals. Seeds 5-8 will earn a bye into Thursday's second round, where they will meet the winners of seeds 9-16.

The Cougars can put themselves in position with a win Saturday over Colorado, and can get help from losses by Arizona State (to No. 20 Texas Tech), Iowa State (to Kansas State) and Utah (to Arizona).

Plenty of year-end combinations exist, but they all start with one thing: a win over Colorado. If the Buffs win, BYU's 8-10 record in conference play will likely keep the Cougars in the opening day of the tournament.

BYU and Colorado will tip at 2 p.m. MST Saturday on ESPN+.

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