BYU forces 25 turnovers in 82-56 win over Bethune-Cookman

PROVO, Utah — BYU forced 25 Bethune-Cookman turnovers and recorded 15 steals to defeat the Wildcats 82-56, with at least five points from nine different Cougars on Wednesday morning at the Marriott Center.

“Good energy in the building. We got a lot of people to play and a lot of people did well in today's game,” head coach Lee Cummard said. “I thought we, for the most part, executed the game plan pretty well. We wanted to limit some of their transition baskets and turn them over while also taking care of the ball. We did a good job in those regards considering they have a pretty good team that seems to know exactly who they are and what they're trying to do.”

BYU forced the 25 turnovers behind a full-court press defense utilized for the full 40 minutes. Delaney Gibb led the team in steals with a career-high five and scored 14 points. Olivia Hamlin matched Gibb in points while adding two steals.

Brinley Cannon chipped in nine points, many coming off her four steals and two rebounds. Prasayus Notoa added nine points with six rebounds and a block, alongside fellow forward Mariam Traore, who tallied 11 rebounds, seven points and one block.

No Cougar played more than 28 minutes, with 11 athletes seeing action and nine logging 13 or more minutes. BYU celebrated its annual Kids' Game with more than 5,000 elementary school students in attendance from local schools.

First Quarter

The Wildcats won the tipoff and banked in a 3-pointer to open the game, but Hamlin immediately responded with a pull-up 3-pointer on the other end. Following a forced turnover on the inbounds pass and a putback layup from Bolanle Yussuf, the Cougars took a 5-3 lead. Bethune-Cookman was forced to call a timeout 74 seconds into the game after another difficult inbounds situation nearly resulted in a second turnover.

After a Wildcat miss, Gibb made a driving floater, followed by Cannon nabbing a steal off the inbounds pass and feeding Hamlin for a layup to extend the lead to 9-5.

Notoa misfired on a layup in the post but grabbed her own offensive rebound. The freshman then kicked it out to Hamlin, who found Gibb for a corner triple. The Cougars followed by forcing a 10-second backcourt violation. The ensuing possession led to another Cannon layup.

Notoa then scored back-to-back layups off entry passes from Gibb, pushing the BYU lead to 22-15. The Wildcats banked in another shot from beyond the arc, but the Cougars answered when Gibb forced Bethune-Cookman's sixth turnover of the quarter and found Notoa in the corner for a 3-pointer.

The Wildcats grabbed back-to-back offensive boards after missed shots but could not find the bottom of the net. The misfires fueled BYU, which closed the quarter on a 4-0 run capped by a Kailey Woolston layup at the buzzer, taking a 29-18 lead after forcing six turnovers in the period.

Second Quarter

After forcing a turnover on the first Wildcat possession of the quarter, BYU struggled to find points over the first two minutes. The scoring drought allowed Bethune-Cookman to shrink the Cougar lead to eight before Woolston scored on a driving layup.

The Wildcats scored five unanswered points, but BYU answered right back with a pull-up jumper from Gibb and a layup from Stella Sakalas to push the lead back to 37-25.

Coming out of the media timeout, BYU forced back-to-back turnovers, leading to three straight baskets by Sakalas, Notoa and Gibb. The intense pressure forced the Wildcats to call another timeout, which did little to stem the tide as BYU immediately recorded its seventh steal of the game.

Ahead 43-27, the Cougars forced three more turnovers down the stretch, though Bethune-Cookman scored the final three points of the half to cut BYU's lead to 43-30 at the break. Bethune-Cookman committed 15 turnovers in the first half, with nine coming in the second quarter alone.

Third Quarter

Bethune-Cookman came out of the locker room hot, scoring six unanswered points as the Cougars missed four straight 3-point attempts before Cannon finally broke through from beyond the arc three minutes into the period to put BYU up 46-36.

Woolston and Sakalas each buried 3-pointers, and heavy defensive pressure nearly forced a backcourt violation, prompting a Bethune-Cookman timeout with BYU leading 51-38 with 4:54 left in the period.

After a Wildcat slipped on an inbounds pass to hand BYU a steal, Sydney Benally converted a layup in the paint. Following back-to-back Bethune-Cookman layups, Notoa kicked it out to Gibb for another corner three.

Hamlin added a fast-break layup off a half-court pass from Notoa, and Kambree Taylor quickly stole a Wildcat pass, driving coast-to-coast for a midrange jumper to extend the lead to 60-42.

After a brief scoring drought that included a defensive block by Notoa, Hamlin hit a 3-pointer and Traore added a free throw to send BYU into the fourth quarter ahead 64-42.

Fourth Quarter

BYU opened the final period with five unanswered points behind a 3-pointer from Benally and a layup from Cannon. The Wildcats answered with a triple of their own, but Gibb countered 15 seconds later with a 3-pointer to stretch the lead to 72-45.

A sequence of blocked shots and turnovers followed on both ends before Traore cleaned up a miss by Gibb with less than a second left on the shot clock to break a 90-second scoring drought.

Out of the media timeout, Hamlin scored back-to-back layups—the first off an inbounds pass and the second following a steal and fast-break drive. A steal by Sakalas then set up another layup for Traore.

The Wildcats scored three more baskets down the stretch, but BYU secured an 82-56 victory.

Up Next

BYU hosts New Mexico at the Marriott Center on Saturday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m. MST. Live coverage will be streamed on ESPN+, with radio play-by-play available on BYU Radio 107.9, byuradio.org and the BYU Radio App with Jason Shepherd.