Women host Fort Lewis College in exhibition game Thursday

PROVO, Utah— In preparation for the upcoming basketball season, BYU women’s basketball will play just one exhibition game, hosting Fort Lewis College, Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. The game will be video streamed on TheW.tv and is FREE to the public.

BYU finished the 2014-15 season with a 23-10 overall record, making it the sixth straight and ninth overall 20-plus win season under head coach Jeff Judkins. The Cougar women return three starters and eight letterwinners from last year’s team that won a West Coast Conference Championship and competed in the NCAA tournament.

In 2015-16, the Cougars were picked to finish second in the WCC regular season race as selected by the league’s coaches.  Two seniors, All-American Lexi Eaton Rydalch (20.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg) and Kylie Maeda (6.2 ppg, 2.1 rpg) will lead the way for BYU. Both were named to the All-WCC Preseason Team. Maeda also tops the leaderboard in assists, averaging 4.2 per game.

Fort Lewis College compiled a 16-11 record last season and returns their leading scorer in Mary Brinton who averaged 14.0 points per game. She is also the leading rebounder entering this season, pulling down 6.5 boards a contest.

These two teams played an exhibition game in Provo last year with the Cougars picking up the 79-43 victory. Eaton Rydalch led the way with 14 points, going 4 of 6 from 3-point range. Micaelee Orton led all players in the rebound category with nine while adding five points and one steal. BYU made 10 3-pointers to the Skyhawks one.

Fort Lewis had two players in double digit scoring with 13 points from Ande Lampert and 12 from Kylie Santos. Both players return to the team this year.

Following the exhibition game, the Cougar women begin the 2015-16 campaign with a home game vs. Utah Valley University on Friday, Nov. 13. Tip off is set for 3 p.m. and the game will be carried live on BYUtv.