AUSTIN, Texas — Despite double-figure performances from three Cougars, BYU women’s basketball fell to Missouri, 78-69, in the first round of the NCAA tournament, Saturday.
“I am really proud of my team,” BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. “We have had a great year. The seniors have been not just great players, but great leaders. We had a great season and we won a conference championship. We are sad about this loss, but we will learn from it and build off of it.”
With the loss the Cougars finish the 2015-16 season with a 26-7 record, a West Coast Conference regular season title, and a third straight appearance in the NCAA postseason tournament.
Lexi Eaton Rydalch finished the game with a game-high 22 points. She went 5 of 5 from the foul line and tallied one rebound and one assist. Kalani Purcell tied a career-high in scoring with 19 points. She also added nine rebounds and four assists. Makenzi Morrison Pulsipher had 13 points and four rebounds.
Pulsipher opened the fourth period with a 3-point field goal to cut the Missouri lead to eight, 60-52. Kylie Maeda then scored on a backdoor layup to bring the Cougars within six, 60-54. At the 7:50 mark, Purcell cut the lead to four, 60-56, as she finished a layup in the lane.
The Tigers increased their lead back to six, 62-56, on a jumper by Jordan Frericks. On the next BYU (26-7, 16-2) possession, Pulsipher got fouled on a jumper and made two free throws to put the Cougars back within four, 62-58. The Cougars played lock-down defense on the next Missouri possession to force a key turnover.
At the 4:25 mark, Amanda Wayment finished a layup under the basket to put BYU within two, 62-60. On the next Tiger possession, Wayment fouled out of the game putting the Tigers on the line. Frericks sank both free throws to give Missouri the 64-60 lead.
With 2:42 to go, Purcell got fouled in the paint and put the Cougars within two, 64-62, as she went 2 of 2 from the foul line. The Tigers then regained the four-point 66-62 lead. With 2:19 to go in the fourth period, Rydalch made a pull up jumper to put BYU within two again, 66-64.
Missouri scored three straight points and pulled ahead by five, 69-64. With under a minute to go, Missouri’s Robinson sank two more free throws to go up by eight, 72-64.
In the first period, the Tigers struck first on a layup by Lindsey Cunningham, but the Cougars retaliated on the next possession to make the score 2-2. Pulsipher tied the game at 6-all at the seven minute mark as she made a 15-foot baseline jumper. On the next BYU possession, Pulsipher helped the Cougars take their first lead of the game, 7-6, as she went 1 of 2 from the free throw line.
BYU took the five-point lead, 11-6, midway through the first period as Rydalch scored her second basket of the game. With 1:40 to go in the first period, the Tigers tied the game at 13-fueled by a layup Juanita Robinson hit a 3-point field goal.
Purcell put the Cougars back up by two, 17-15, as she took the ball to the hoop and scored. BYU took the 17-15 lead into the second period.
The Tigers hit their second 3-point field goal of the game to open the second period. Missouri then increased its lead to three, 20-17, on a layup by Frericks. At the 5:41 mark, the Tigers pulled ahead by six, 27-21, as Sierra Michaelis made a pair of free throws.
Missouri then went on a 6-0 run after the second period media timeout to take the 33-21 lead, forcing a Cougar timeout.
Rydalch put a stop to the Tiger run as she converted a 3-point play to cut the lead to nine, 33-24. On the next BYU possession, Rydalch got to the free throw line again, cutting the Tiger advantage to seven, 33-26.
Under a minute to go, Pulsipher hit a crucial 3-point field goal to put the Cougars within four, 35-31, going in to the half. Rydalch led all scorers with 15 points at the break, and Purcell had a game-high eight rebounds. Both teams shot 50.0 percent in the first half.
Missouri scored a basket quickly out of the break, but BYU then scored four straight points to make the score 37-35. The Tigers then went on an 8-0 run to take the 45-35 lead.
At the 6:29 mark, Purcell made the basket and got fouled to put a stop to Missouri’s run, cutting the lead to seven, 45-38. After a Tiger lay up, Rydalch converted her first 3-pointer of the game to bring the Cougars within six, 47-41. Missouri then went on a 5-0 run to make the score 52-41.
The Cougars cut the Tiger lead to five, 52-47, as Pulsipher and Rydalch both hit a pair of free throws. Missouri extended its lead to 10, 58-48, as Sophie Cunningham drove to the hoop. BYU went into the fourth period down 11, 60-49.
Missouri finished the game shooting 56.8 percent from the field to BYU’s 47.2. The Tigers outrebounded the Cougars 30 to 20 and had 15 assists to BYU’s six. The Cougars finished the game with 26 points off of turnovers to the Tigers’ 17.
Postgame Notes
Team
In the first half, the Cougars and Tigers had the same number of rebounds with 14 each. For the game, BYU pulled down a total of 20 rebounds while Missouri grabbed 30.
The Cougars dished out two assists through the first 20 minutes of action. The Tigers had eight. BYU finished with six assists while Missouri dished out 15.
For the 17th time this year, at least three players scored in double figures. In the game vs. Missouri, Rydalch had 22, Purcell tallied 19 and Pulsipher finished with 13 points.
BYU had two steals while Missouri had four in the first half of play. At the end of the game, the Cougars had the advantage with eight while the Tigers had six.
Player
Lexi Eaton Rydalch led all scorers in the first half with 15 while shooting 6 of 12 from the field and 3 of 3 from the free throw line. For the 26th time this year, she tallied 20-plus points in a game with 22 points. Rydalch went 5 of 5 from the free throw line, had one rebound and one steal.
Kalani Purcell had the most rebounds with eight in the first 20 minutes of the game. She also contributed six points, shooting 3 of 4 from the field. She finished the game with a near double-double from 19 points and nine rebounds. Purcell also had four assists and three steals. The assists and steals were team bests while the 19 points tied for career bests.
Makenzi Morrison Pulsipher picked up her 23rd game scoring in double figures with 13. She grabbed four rebounds, had two steals and went 5 of 6 from the free throw line.
For the first time since, Nov. 24, Micaelee Orton returned to the starting line up since injuring her knee. She saw her first action since the injury on Dec. 23 in the first league game of the year at San Diego. Orton played 19 minutes, had one rebound, one block and two points.