LOS ANGELES – Morgan Bailey’s seventh double-double of the year lead BYU women’s basketball to a 71-63 victory over Loyola Marymount on the road Thursday night.
"It was a great come back by our team, and we saw some really nice play from a lot of players tonight," BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. "This was a really good team effort to get the win. Makenzi did a great job defensively and she hit some big shots for us. Xojian came in the second half and really played well. Morgan had another solid performance, we just didn't do a good job in the first half of getting her the ball."
Bailey scored 22 points and grabbed 16 rebounds for the Cougars. Lexi Eaton added 20 points, 3 of 4 from beyond the arc. Makenzi Morrison had 14 points, shooting 4 of 4 from the charity stripe in the last minute of the game.
BYU (12-4, 4-1) started off shooting the ball poorly, going 2 for 7 in the first seven minutes of the game. LMU (2-13, 0-4) took advantage of the off-shooting start and took the 16-5 lead with 12:51 remaining in the first half.
Bailey had a few good looks early on, but BYU had a hard time getting anything to fall. The Cougars held the Lions to a three minute scoring drought and forced three turnovers, but continued to shoot poorly.
Eaton drilled a 3-pointer to make it 13-24 which sparked the team. Bailey made a layup, the last bucket of the first half, with 30 seconds in the half to make the score 23-28 with LMU leading at halftime. The Cougars closed out the half on a 6-0 run, holding the Lions scoreless for the last three minutes.
BYU had a hot start to the second half, taking the 33-32 lead after a layup from Eaton. Another shot from Eaton sparked a 9-0 run for the Cougars to go up 42-34 with 14:20 remaining.
The Lions answered back by making a couple of shots from beyond the arc, tying the game up 48-48. A hook shot from Bailey took the lead back until another three from Makenzie Cast made LMU’s lead 51-50 with 10:41 left.
Three treys in a row from Morrison, Xojian Harry and Eaton gave BYU its first double-digit lead of the night, 61-51. After that run, the Cougars were held scoreless for four minutes until Bailey powered in for a layup with 4:43 remaining to push their lead back up to 63-56.
LMU kept it close towards the end, getting within three points with one minute left. Morrison sealed the game for BYU late, making four free throws and stealing the ball with 10 seconds remaining to keep the lead.
The Cougars continue their road trip on Saturday against Pepperdine at 12 p.m. PST. The game will be broadcast live on BYU Radio - Sirius XM 143 and will have live stats available on the BYU women's basketball schedule page.
Postgame Notes
Team
BYU was down by five at the break, 28-21, but would go on to record its fourth league victory of the season, with an eight-point victory, 71-63 over LMU.
The Cougars had 19 rebounds to the Lions 17 after 20 minutes of action. BYU finished the league game outrebounding LMU 38 to 29, making the 10th time on the year that the Cougars had recorded more boards than their opponents.
BYU got 27 points off of LMU miscues and had eight second-chance points.
The Cougar bench scored 12 points compared with 11 points for the Lions bench players.
For just the third time on the season, the opponent has recorded more assists than BYU. The Lions dished out 23 to the Cougars 21 assists.
Player
Morgan led the Cougars with eight points and nine rebounds at halftime. She finished the game with her seventh double-double of the year and second straight with 22 points and 16 rebounds.
The 22 points mark the sixth time on the season that she’s recorded a game with 20-plus points.
Both the points and rebounds were game highs.
Kylie Maeda led the way in the assists category at the break with three. She went on to dish out a total of seven for the game.
The total assists were game highs.
Lexi had seven points and two steals in the first half and ended the game with 20 points and three steals marking the 14th game this year that she’s finished with double-digit points.
The 20 points mark the sixth time on the season that Eaton has had a game with 20 points or more.
She also grabbed five rebounds and had three steals, which tied for team bests.
Makenzi Morrison picked up her seventh game this year tallying double digits in scoring. For the game, she had 14 points, including two free throws that gave BYU a five-point lead with just 25 seconds remaining in the contest.
She tied for team bests in steals with three, while grabbing two rebounds.