Cougars and Chanticleers meet in 2025-26 season opener

Provo, Utah — BYU opens the Lee Cummard Era as Coastal Carolina visits the Marriott Center on Wednesday, Nov. 5. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. MT, with the game streamed on ESPN+ and broadcast live with Jason Shepherd on BYU Radio 107.9, byuradio.org and the BYU Radio app. 

Matchup Breakdown
The Cougars and Chanticleers have never met on the hardwood for a women's basketball contest. 

All-Time: Never Played

At BYU: Never Played

Cummard vs. Coastal Carolina: Never Played

BYU Cougars  ||  0-0, 0-0  ||  Big 12 Conference

WHAT'S AT STAKE  ||  With a win, BYU would notch its first victory under first-year head coach Lee Cummard, who took over as the program’s eighth head coach on March 31, 2025. Cummard has a 3-0 record as an acting head coach, earning three wins during the absence of then-head coach Jeff Judkins due to COVID-19. As the acting head coach, Cummard led the Cougars to wins over No. 17 Florida State, No. 22 West Virginia and in-state rival Utah State.  

EXHIBITION EXCELLENCE  ||  The Cougars took down Western Colorado 86-50 in their lone exhibition ahead of the 2025-26 season. The Cougars forced 19 Mountaineer turnovers and scored 25 points off giveaways. BYU only turned it over seven times on Tuesday while recording 18 assists on 29 made field goals. The Cougars also had five players with five or more rebounds, led by Bola Yussuf and Lara Rohkohl with nine and eight rebounds, respectively.

Freshmen guards Sydney Benally and Olivia Hamlin combined for 27 points in their first action on the Marriott Center hardwood. Benally led BYU in scoring with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting to go along with three steals, three rebounds and two assists. Hamlin went 2-for-4 from three while recording six boards, three assists, a steal and a block in the win.

PLAY HARD, PLAY RIGHT, PLAY TO WIN  ||  In his first meeting with the team following his hiring, Cummard emphasized that results don’t come without hard work and that he was going to prioritize the team’s inputs this season and let the outcomes take care of themselves. Brinley Cannon spoke on the team’s mantra at Big 12 Media Day by saying, “Coach Lee has brought an emphasis on playing right, playing hard and playing to win. I think we’ve implemented that really well this offseason, and I’m excited to see how we can continue to grow on those gains as the season goes on.”

NEW DYNAMIC DUO  ||  The Cougar backcourt got some needed depth with the dynamic duo of freshmen Sydney Benally and Olivia Hamlin. Benally comes to BYU as a two-time New Mexico Gatorade Player of the Year and the 88th-ranked player in her class according to ESPN HoopGurlz rankings. Hamlin joins the Cougar roster as the 59th-ranked player by Prospects Nation for the class of 2025. She is also one of two players in Utah high school girls’ basketball to score over 2,500 points in her career.

CLIMBING THE BIG 12 MOUNTAIN  ||  Although the Cougars are focusing on inputs rather than outcomes this season, Cummard and his team have set some lofty goals for the 2025-26 campaign. At Big 12 Media Day, Coach Cummard said, “We haven’t done anything in the league in the first two years. We’ve been in a lot of close games, we’ve upset a few ranked opponents, but we’ve never won a game in the conference tournament. We’ve never finished in the top half of the league. So there are two [goals] right there that we want to strive for daily. We want to be playing late into the conference tournament and go to the NCAA Tournament as a member of the Big 12 Conference.”

Head Coach – Lee Cummard

• Alma Mater: BYU, 2009
• Division I Career Record: 0-0  ||  1st Season
• Record at BYU: 0-0  ||  1st Season