Cougars fall to Broncos 66-55 on the road

BOISE, Idaho — Despite having 18 points from Paisley Johnson, the BYU women’s basketball team fell 66-55 to Boise State on Wednesday night at ExtraMile Arena.

BYU at Boise State Final Box Score

"We saw some bright spots in the game and it was good to see some of our players have a good game," BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. "Both Babalu (Ugwu) and Signe (Glantz) had some good minutes today. We just didn’t do the little things that we needed to win and we didn’t come out with fire."

Johnson shot six of 13 on the night, including four of eight from 3-point range, while adding four rebounds and two assists for the Cougars (3-4). Ugwu and Brenna Chase Drollinger also reached double digits in scoring with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Drollinger added five assists and three rebounds while Ugwu recorded five rebounds and a team-high four steals.

Sara Hamson had a near double-double with eight points and seven rebounds for BYU while also tallying three blocks. Shalae Salmon pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds and added six points. 

Although BYU outscored Boise State 9-0 on second-chance points and had 12 bench points to the Broncos’ two, Boise State(7-4) shot 43 percent from the field on the night compared to the Cougars’ 31 percent.

BYU opened the game on a 5-0 run with a basket down low from Hamson and a 3-pointer from Johnson. The Broncos responded with a 13-2 run of their own to go up 13-7 and force the Cougars to call a timeout midway through the first. Both teams traded baskets the remainder of the quarter as Boise State maintained a six-point lead, 19-13, after the first 10 minutes.

A skyhook from Salmon followed by a pair of free throws and a trey from Drollinger brought BYU within four, 24-20, just over three minutes into the second quarter. Another Drollinger triple broke a three-minute scoring drought from both teams and cut the Cougars’ deficit to one, 24-23. The Broncos scored four more points before the end of the half to take a 27-23 lead into the locker room.

BYU came out strong to open the third quarter, as Johnson converted from deep on back-to-back possessions and Salmon made a skyhook in the paint to tie the game at 31 two minutes into the period. Boise State, however, responded with a 12-2 run to take a 43-33 advantage midway through the quarter.

Ugwu scored the next ten points for the Cougars, converting a put-back layup, a 3-pointer from the top of the key, three free throws and another layup to bring BYU within seven, 50-43, with 1:25 left in the third. Johnson added a pair of free throws to cut the Cougars’ deficit to six, 51-45, at the end of the third quarter.

An Ugwu steal led to a fast-break triple from Johnson to put BYU within five, 53-48, two minutes into the fourth quarter. After the Broncos built their lead back up to 10, Drollinger hit a deep 3-pointer to end a seven-minute Cougar scoring drought and bring the score to 58-51 with under a minute remaining.

Boise State converted a pair of free throws after BYU intentionally fouled to stop the clock, then Ugwu converted another layup to put the Cougars back within seven, 60-53, with 39 seconds left. The Broncos, however, proceeded to make their final six free-throw attempts to go up 66-53 with 21 seconds remaining. Johnson made one last layup before the buzzer to bring the final score to 66-55 for Boise State.

BYU returns to the Marriott Center on Saturday, Dec. 14, to take on in-state opponent Utah Valley at 2 p.m. MDT. The game will be carried live on BYUtv and on the BYUtv App.

Team Notes

• For the fourth time on the year, three BYU players finished the game scoring in double figures: Paisley Johnson (18), Babalu Ugwu (12), Brenna Drollinger (11).
• In the road loss, the Cougars shot 31.3 percent from the field, 38.1 percent from 3-point range and 87.5 percent from the free-throw line.
• BYU took a 21-20 advantage in rebounds in the first half and finished the game with 35 total boards compared with 39 for BSU.
• Boise State dished out seven assists to BYU’s six in the first 20 minutes of action. At the conclusion of the contest, the Broncos concluded the game with 15 assists to the Cougars' 13.
• BYU ended the game with six steals to BSU’s four.
• The BYU bench contributed 12 points in the game compared with two points from the Boise State bench.

Player Notes

• Brenna Drollinger led the BYU effort in the first half with eight points, three rebounds and two assists. She finished the game with her fourth game this season of 10+ points with a total of 11 while dishing out five assists, which tied the team-high.
• Sara Hamson recorded two blocks in the first half to go along with six points and three rebounds. She finished the road contest with a near double-double with eight points and seven rebounds. Hamson also got a team-best three blocks.
• Shalae Salmon pulled down a first-half best eight boards and tallied four points. She concluded the contest with a team-high 11 rebounds along with six points and one steal.
• Paisley Johnson picked up her fifth straight and sixth overall contest with double-digit points with a team-best 18 points on 6 of 13 shooting. She also grabbed four rebounds and dished out two assists.
• Babalu Ugwu came off the bench to score 12 points, all in the second half. It marks the fourth time on the year she’s finished a game with double figures in scoring. She also pulled down five rebounds and recorded a game-high four steals.
• Maria Albiero tied the team-high in assists with five.