Box Score
PROVO, Utah – The San Francisco women's basketball team worked to the final buzzer, but the BYU Cougars came away with an 81-47 win at the Marriott Center Thursday night.
The Dons were paced by 13 points from the hand of sophomore
Zhané Dikes, while
Alexa Hardick added eight points for USF.
Taylor Proctor grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Dons.
USF shot a season-low 21.3 percent from the field, and managed just 58.6 percent shooting from the line. USF's struggles from the field were juxtaposed by 45.6 percent shooting from the Cougars on the night, and BYU dominated the boards 58-35.
As the night began, the USF defense forced BYU to turn the ball over on its first possession, fighting for the loose ball. But after Kim Beeston's offensive miscue, the Dons couldn't capitalize and the Cougars opened the game on a scoring frenzy.
BYU started the game with an 11-0 run, hitting four of their first six attempts from the field. Meanwhile the Dons struggled with eight misses before the first media timeout. Out of the break,
Taylor Proctor's driving layup found the bottom of the net with 15:39 to play in the first half to put the Dons on the board.
From that point, USF never got the score closer than seven points as the team's shooting woes persisted through the first half of the action. The Dons only managed to make 6-of-36, or 16.7 percent, of its first half attempts as the team trailed 34-15 at the break.
The second half began exponentially better than the first, with the Dons and the Cougars keeping pace with one another in the opening minutes.
The two went basket-for-basket, keeping the margin static at 19 points with 15:09 remaining in the game. Denae Mary Williams dished to Hardick for the 3-pointer the put the score at 49-27 in favor of the Cougars.
BYU then reeled off of a 17-5 run to grow the advantage as the Dons' shooting again cooled. The Cougars kept pushing the tally before closing the game with and 81-47 victory.
Jennifer Hamson tied her career-high in rebounding, pulling down 17, to go along with 14 points as the senior from Lindon, Utah nabbed her 12th double-double. Standing in third in NCAA Division I in blocks per game entering the contest (3.78), Hamson denied eight USF shots to nearly earn the triple-double.
Joining her with double-doubles for the Cougars were Morgan Bailey (13 points, 12 rebounds) and Kim Beeston (11 points, 10 assists). Lexi Eaton closed as the game's leading scorer with 23 points including a perfect 8-for-8 outing from the line.
A bright spot for USF, the Dons took care of the ball, committing a season-low five turnovers. The mark is a vast reduction of its 15.7 turnovers per game average on the year. The Dons move to 7-12 (2-6 WCC) while the Cougars improve to 15-4 (5-2 WCC) after Thursday's matchup.
Up next, the Dons travel to San Diego to face the Toreros Saturday at 2 p.m.
