PROVO, Utah – A barrage of 3-point buckets lifted BYU women’s basketball 79-43 over Fort Lewis College in the final exhibition game of the season in the Marriott Center on Saturday.
“Tonight, we were better and more focused,” BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. “I thought tonight a lot of kids played a lot better than the game before. It’s a process, but we’re getting better. I want the players to get some confidence. We just have to be more consistent, but this is a good game for that.”
Junior Lexi Eaton led all scorers with 14 points, 4 of 6 from beyond the arc. Freshman Maddy Ziering-Smith had 11 points, 3 of 3 for three-pointers. Micaelee Orton led all players in rebounds with nine, four of which were offensive boards. Orton added five points and one steal. Senior Morgan Bailey had three steals to go along with her five points. Junior Kylie Maeda dished out five assists. The bench came in and scored 45 points. The Cougars also scored 21 points off of turnovers.
BYU started off the first half with a barrage of three-point shooting. Three-pointers from Ashley Garfield, Bailey and Eaton gave the Cougars the early 9-2 lead at the 17:20 mark. Bailey had two steals, one of which led to points in the paint from her at the 15:32 mark to give BYU the 11-3 lead. There was a lot of foul trouble for the Cougars. They had 13 fouls to FLC’s eight in just the first half.
A jump shot from Xojian Harry gave BYU its first double-digit lead, 17-7. Kylie Santos’s move to the basket for a layup at the 15:01 mark was the Skyhawks’ first field goal made in seven minutes. The Cougars held them to 25 percent shooting in the first half. BYU responded by going on a 9-0 run to push the lead to 31-12.
A couple of three-pointers from Eaton and one from Ziering-Smith put BYU up 36-14. The Cougars were 7 of 10 from beyond the arc in the first half, the seventh coming from Kristine Fuller to end the half and go up 41-18.
Savannah Irwin got BYU rolling in the second half with two shots made, but FLC answered back with two quick baskets of its own to make the score 45-20 with 17:50 left. The three-point shooting success continued for the Cougars, with Eaton making one and Ziering-Smith making two in the second half.
After an inbound pass from Makenzi Morrison, Garfield made a layup to put BYU up 58-28 with 12:20 left in the game. The Skyhawk’s first and only three-pointer made in the game came from Michelle Turner to make the score 62-34.
Orton grabbed an offensive rebound and got the layup to push the Cougars’ lead to 79-41 with 2:45 left. A couple of blocks in a row from Lyssa Hanks held the Skyhawks at bay. BYU won 79-43, shooting 50 percent and holding FLC to 27 percent shooting.
“I think that after last week’s loss, there were some things we needed to adjust and we addressed those and came in more mentally prepared,” Garfield said. “We made the adjustment to come out this week and impose our will on the other team and not sit back and let them do that to us.”
BYU kicks off the regular season against South Dakota State on Friday, Nov. 14 in Brookings, South Dakota. The game starts at 8:00 p.m. CST.