STOCKTON, Calif. — In an overall great team effort, and with Makenzi Pulsipher achieving the 1,000-point milestone, BYU women’s basketball handed Pacific its first conference loss in its 68-55 victory over the Tigers at the Alex G. Spanos Center on Saturday.
“Today’s win was a great win for us,” BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. “I’m proud of these guys. We came ready to play. I was impressed with our defense—we did a really good job of doing what we had to do to win. Kalani (Purcell) had one of her best games in a long time. Cassie (Broadhead) and Amanda (Wayment) had solid performances. Congratulations to Makenzi (Pulsipher). I am proud of her—to make the 1,000-point club is not easy.”
Cassie Broadhead led all scorers with 20 points and eight assists, and Kalani Purcell recorded her eighth double-double of the season with 16 points and 13 rebounds. Pulsipher added nine points and four rebounds in the win. With 7:10 to go in the game, the senior guard finished a layup in the paint to give her 1,001 points in her career as a Cougar. Pulsipher joins an elite club of 27 total Cougar alum with over 1,000 points.
Pacific (7-8, 3-1) scored a quick five points to take the early 5-0 lead over BYU (9-6, 3-1). The Cougars then responded with five points of their own to tie the game at 5-all with seven minutes to go in the first quarter.
Broadhead gave BYU its first lead of the game, 9-8, at the 4:38 mark, as she sank the Cougars first two free throws of the contest.
BYU took the four-point deficit, 17-13, into the second quarter, with Purcell leading the way with six points.
On an assist from Purcell, Broadhead cut the Tiger lead to two, 19-17, making a floater inside the paint. With 6:26 to go in the half, Brenna Chase converted her first 3-point field goal of the game to tie the game at 22-all. On the next Cougar possession, Pulsipher gave BYU its largest lead of the game so far, 25-22, as she dropped a 3-pointer of her own.
Shooting 71 percent from the field in the second quarter, BYU closed out the half on a 22-6 run to take the 39-28 lead into halftime. The Cougar women outscored the Tigers 26 to 11 in the second period of play. Purcell led all scorers at halftime with 12 points and six rebounds.
The Cougars continued their run out of the halftime break, increasing the BYU lead to 17, 46-29. With 3:11 to go, Wayment boosted the third period lead to 20, 51-31—her layup also gave her eight points for the game.
A minute into the fourth period, Chase gave BYU the 21-point advantage, 59-38, hitting her second 3-point field goal of the game. At the 7:10 mark, Broadhead threaded the needle through two defenders to Pulsipher for the open layup. With the layup, Pulsipher recorded 1,000+ career-points at BYU.
Continuing conference play, the Cougars will return to California on Thursday to take on the University of San Francisco. Teams will tip-off at 7 p.m. PST, and the game can be streamed live on TheW.tv. Links to live stats can also be found on the BYU women’s basketball schedule page.
Postgame Notes
Team
BYU had a 12-0 run that started with 7:25 left in the second quarter to take a 29-22 lead in the game at Pacific. The Cougars led by 11, 39-28 at the break. They extended their lead to 22, 63-41, in the fourth period. With the 13-point, 68-55 victory, BYU (3-1) moves into a tie for first place in the West Coast Conference with Pacific (3-1).
In the first half of action, BYU had dished out 10 assists to Pacific’s four. The Cougars finished the game with 16 assists. The Tigers finished the game dishing out nine.
In the blocks category, the Cougars had the edge through the first 20 minutes with three. The Tigers had recorded just one. BYU finished with six blocks to just one for Pacific.
Through the first half of play, BYU had recorded seven steals. PAC had zero. At the end of the game, the Cougars had tallied 12 while the Tigers finished with five.
BYU shot 53.6 percent from the field in the first half. They ended the game shooting 50.0 percent from the field and 81.8 percent from the charity stripe.
The Cougars scored 32 of their 68 points in the paint, had 12 fast break points and 16 points from Pacific turnovers.
Player
With 7:10 left in the fourth quarter, Makenzi Pulsipher’s layup propelled her into becoming a member of BYU’s prestigious 1,000-point club with 1,001 career points. She becomes the 27th player to reach the milestone. Pulsipher finished the game with nine points, four rebounds, two assists and game-best four steals.
Kalani Purcell was the first player on the court to reach double digits in points with 12. She also led the way in the rebound category with six at halftime. For the game, Purcell recorded her eighth double-double of the year and fifth straight with a game-high 13 rebounds. She also recorded game bests in blocks with three.
Cassie Broadhead reach double figures (10) with two seconds left in the first half. She led all players with five assists through the first 20 minutes of play and had two steals. For the game, she finished with 20 points for the eighth time with 20-plus points. She dished out a game-high eight assists and was perfect at the charity stripe, going 4-for-4. Broadhead also made both attempted treys.