PROVO, Utah – BYU women’s basketball kicked off its season with the Blue and White scrimmage on Thursday night.
"I saw a lot of good things tonight," BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. "I thought we moved the ball really well. This year we have quickness and we can drive it pretty well. We have a really strong bench, which allows us to use a lot of different combinations. We have a lot of experienced, good players who know how to play."
This was the first chance for the Cougars to play in a public scrimmage with the new format, four quarters of 10 minutes rather than two halves of 20 minutes. Each quarter saw a different mix of players on the two teams.
In all four quarters, Lexi Eaton Rydalch and Kristine Fuller Nielson led the team in scoring with 15 points apiece. Nielson also had three steals in the game. Makenzi Morrison Pulsipher tallied 14 points, 12 of them coming from beyond the arc. In assists, senior guard Kylie Maeda led all players with nine. Junior college transfer Kalani Purcell had a double-double in the combined quarters, grabbing 10 rebounds and scoring11 points.
In the first quarter, the Blue team defeated the White team 26-11, led by Rydalch’s seven points. After staying close for most of the quarter, the Blue squad finished with a 7-0 run in the last minute to seal the win.
After switching up a few players, the Blue team once again won the second quarter, 28-14. Micaelee Orton and Nielson led all scorers with eight points each. Both teams made a total of nine 3-pointers in the first half.
The third quarter was a game between the women’s team and the boy’s practice squad with the girls staying in blue and the boys wearing white. The Blue squad had its first loss of the game, falling 20-13 in the third quarter. Spanning three minutes, the White team went on a 9-0 run to go up 16-8.
Brooke Romney joined the White team in the fourth quarter, scoring four points to lead her team to a 15-10 win. Alohi Robins-Hardy led the Blue team with six points.
The Cougars’ only exhibition game is at home against Fort Lewis College on Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. MST. The game will be streamed live on TheW.tv. Live stats will be available on the BYU women’s basketball schedule page.