Worthy of celebration: BYU women snap 4-game losing skid with 1st Big 12 win

PROVO — For BYU women's basketball, Saturday afternoon was a reason to celebrate.

The Cougars' win over fellow Big 12 newcomer Cincinnati wasn't always flashy, and star forward Lauren Gustin was held without a double-double for just the third time this season.

Kailey Woolston scored 12 points with five rebounds, and Emma Calvert dropped her first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds to go with two assists and three blocks as BYU surged past Cincinnati 68-58 to collect the Cougars' first Big 12 win in program history.

Lauren Davenport also scored 11 points for BYU (11-7, 1-4 Big 12), and Amari Whiting supplied 10 points, six rebounds and four assists. Gustin finished with 11 points and nine rebounds for a Cougars squad that shot 48.1% from the field and assisted on 18-of-25 made field goals.

"This is huge. The ladies celebrated hard in the locker room," said head coach Amber Whiting, with freshly sprayed wet hair following the postgame moments in the locker room. "But I could not be more proud of them. I told them it would take everyone, and they all came together. I don't think one person went astray; everyone bought in, came together, and they got it done."

Malea Williams had 15 points and seven rebounds, and Jillian Hayes added 14 points and eight boards for the Bearcats (9-7, 1-4 Big 12), who earned their first Big 12 win a few days prior on a game-winning putback with 0.5 seconds remaining against UCF.

"Some games in the preseason, I'd come into the locker room to a lot of 'meh' on their faces," Whiting said. "So I'd get up and jump up and down, yell and scream and dance, because winning is hard at the Division I level and Big 12 is even harder. I can't even express how slim the margin of error is. When we get one of these, we've got to jump around, scream, and make it memorable, and then we'll turn around and prepare for Oklahoma State."

The win snapped a four-game losing skid for BYU, including a 79-69 setback Wednesday at Houston — another newcomer to the conference along with BYU and Cincinnati. Five players scored in double figures, and Kaylee Smiler finished with 9 points and seven assists for a BYU team that ran just eight players deeper.

"The last two games, it feels like we were right there," Calvert said. "We just needed a tiny bit more, and I feel like we brought that today. So finally, we did it."

BYU shot 53% from the field in the second quarter, including five 3-pointers to take a 38-26 halftime lead. Woolston and Davenport each hit a pair of triples before the break to lift the Cougars to the double-digit halftime advantage.

"BYU was just phenomenal in that second quarter," Cincinnati coach Katrina Merriweather said of the first-half run. "I thought we did a good job of not letting them have vision at the basket, and they just kept plugging away."

The announced crowd of 1,786 fans — including a larger-than-average student section possibly buoyed by the men's basketball team's road trip to UCF — also played a role, per Davenport.

"I give a lot to the crowd; when the crowd feeds us, we feed off that energy," the Boston U. transfer said. "I thought that was super important for us, and then we just hit shots to help us keep rolling."

But Cincinnati didn't go away. The Bearcats held BYU without a make until Gustin's layup with 6:13 left in the third quarter, and cut the deficit as close as 40-35 on Brianna Byars' jumper a half-minute prior.

The Bearcats matched BYU in the third quarter, pulling within four, 48-44. But Woolston drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer on a perfect assist from Whiting to push the Cougars ahead 51-44 with one quarter to play.

"Those are tough. They're tough because, while we've got people playing point that aren't point guards, I put them in a position to handle the ball," Merriweather said. "That one was on me. Those moments are hard, but it's harder for them because they come back and look at you all doughy eyed."

Cincinnati shot just 3-of-14 from the field in the fourth quarter, including 1-of-4 from deep, to BYU's 6-of-12 to seal the win.

BYU hits the road again next week for a midweek game Wednesday at Oklahoma State. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. MST on ESPN+ before returning home Saturday to host Texas Tech.

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