PROVO, Utah – The San Francisco women's basketball team held the scoreboard advantage at league-leading BYU for more than 38 minutes. But in the end, a last-second heave by BYU's Lexi Eaton Rydalch ended the contest with the home team victorious, 65-62, Thursday night at the Marriott Center.
The Dons did nearly everything right but win in the contest.

USF senior Taylor Proctor led the way with 27 points, including a 10-of-11 effort from the line, seven rebounds and four steals. Along with Proctor's stellar night, USF's Anna Seilund and Claudia Price each finished with 10 points. Seilund, a sophomore from Copenhagen, Denmark, added a game-high seven assists in the contest.

"Taylor came on really, really strong tonight," said head coach Jennifer Azzi after the tough defeat. "That's the way that Taylor can play. She's been very aggressive, and when she's aggressive great things happen. Whether she's getting assists, scoring, whatever she's doing, we're a better team."

Tied at the top of the scoreboard was Rydalch, who also finished with 27 points, needing 23 attempts from the field and a 9-of-10 night at the line to get there. Her near-half court rainbow with 1.5 seconds on the clock and the game knotted at 62 found the bottom of the twine and sent the Dons away empty handed.

"Obviously, Lexi is one of the best players in the country I think, and she really took over," remarked Azzi. "She hit a volleyball line shot at the end – it's hard. Our team played so hard and did so many things really, really well, but BYU is a great team."

The Dons were up by 14 points with 7:07 to play in the fourth quarter after Proctor received the pass from Seilund for the layup and the foul. The made free throw put the score at 58-44 in favor of the Dons, capping a 7-1 spurt to open the period. Then, the Cougars went on the attack, turning up the defensive pressure while driving to the rim. With the game in the bonus situation for BYU, the Cougars went 8-for-8 from the line and 3-for-5 for the floor scoring 14 unanswered to knot the night at 58 apiece.

During the span of six scoreless minutes for the USF offense, the Dons committed six turnovers as BYU climbed out of the deficit. Proctor halted the run for the Cougars with a jumper for Proctor to give USF the 69-58 advantage with 50.5 seconds remaining. The score for the Dons was countered by a three for Rydalch as BYU edged out to the one-point lead. After Pulsipher made one of two from the line with 18.9 seconds, Proctor took her turn at the stripe, sinking both shots with 6.2 ticks on the clock.

With neither team having any timeouts left, Rydalch received the inbounds pass and sprinted just past half court before releasing what would prove to be the improbable game-winner as the Cougars improve to 21-4 on the year, and 13-1 in West Coast Conference play with less than three weeks remaining in the regular season. The heartbreaking loss puts the Dons at 14-10 (5-8) as the squad looks to rebound against San Diego on Saturday.

Tip off between the Dons and the Toreros from the Jenny Craig Center is slated for 2 p.m.