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PROVO — In front of shared luminary John Stockton, the BYU women’s basketball team dropped its first game of the season to Gonzaga.
Jill Barta poured in 34 points and 15 rebounds, and Emma Stach added 16 points and three assists to lift the Bulldogs to an 84-70 road win Saturday afternoon over the Cougars.
Cassie Devashrayee was one of three players in double figures for BYU with 24 points, followed by 10 points apiece from Sara Hamson and Malia Nawahine.
Nawahine also had a team-high six assists and Hamson chipped in eight rebounds and four blocks for the Cougars (13-10, 8-4 WCC).
Stockton’s daughter Laura had a game-high eight assists for the Zags (19-4, 12-0 WCC).
But Barta was too much, and Gonzaga rode her to its 14th-straight win to seize a commanding four-game lead on second-place BYU in the West Coast Conference standings with six games remaining.
“I want to give Gonzaga a lot of credit,” BYU coach Jeff Judkins said. “They played really well today, especially Barta. They are really hard to guard because they spread you out so well. We were too anxious and missed a lot of open shots we usually hit. The positive thing is that we hung in there, as poor as we shot the ball today. I am proud of my team and I thought some of the girls showed some things tonight that they can build on.”
Next up, BYU travels to Santa Clara for a 8 p.m. MST tipoff Thursday night. Gonzaga returns home Thursday to host Pacific.
