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SAN FRANCISCO – The USF women's basketball team rallied for a fourth quarter lead and kept the visiting BYU Cougars at bay to claim a 70-63 victory on Thursday evening at War Memorial at the Sobrato Center.
Junior
Anna Seilund paced USF (9-7, 3-2 WCC) offensively with 19 points. Seilund shot just 5-of-14 from the field, but, as has been her custom this year, the conference's second-best free throw shooter went 7-for-8 from the line to help secure the win. She also added a pair of assists and three steals on the night.
"We'd been struggling coming into our offense and finding each other," Seilund said after the win, the Dons' second straight over the Cougars. "I think we had it in spurts this game, but we need to get better at it for every single game we play. What ultimately got us this win tonight was the fourth quarter where we came together and shared the ball and that opened up a lot of shots."
Michaela Rakova tallied 15 points and a team-best eight rebounds before fouling out late in the fourth quarter, while
Rachel Howard scored 12 and dished out four assists. Howard ended the night just two points shy of the 1,000 career point threshold. She will go into Saturday's matchup at Pacific with 998 points to her credit.
USF registered a 37.5 percent clip from the field, compared to BYU's 44.6 percent effort, and were significantly outscored in the paint, 36-16, but the Dons took care of the ball, committing a season-low eight turnovers while forcing the Cougars into 16 miscues, allowing USF to put up 14 points off turnovers.
Likewise, BYU (9-7, 3-2 WCC) held a 42-35 advantage on the boards overall, but the Dons made the most of their 12 offensive rebounds by posting a 17-7 edge in second chance points.
USF was buoyed by a season-high 24 minutes and seven points from freshman
Anna Pierce, who also chipped in a season-best four assists.
"I thought our bench really gave us a lift tonight," said head coach
Molly Goodenbour. "I thought
Anna Pierce came in and really gave us some good minutes, and Dagny [McConnell]. I thought that was really a key to the game. I also thought the second half, making some adjustments and sharing the ball better [were keys]."
BYU shot 53.8 percent while holding the Dons at arm's length for most of the first half, carrying a 33-28 lead into halftime, aided in part by a 1-for-9 stretch in the second quarter for the Dons.
USF came out fast in the second half, scoring the first six points and taking a 34-33 lead on Seilund's layup with 8:38 on the clock, the Dons' first lead since the six minute mark of the first quarter. Back-to-back layups by Howard and Seilund on a break tied the game at 47-47 at end of the third quarter.
The fourth quarter saw the Dons pull away, mounting a 14-0 run punctuated by their largest lead of the game on Rakova's banked-in three-pointer with 2:33 to play that put USF ahead 61-49. The Cougars responded by shifting into a full court press, which allowed them to put some pressure on the Dons and remain within striking distance. BYU trimmed the deficit back down to four points when Cassie Broadhead sunk a pair of free throws with 43 seconds remaining.
But the Dons, who ranked second the WCC in free throw percentage coming into the night, connected on 9-of-12 free throws down the stretch for the win.
"Once they started fouling we did make our free throws, which was good, but defensively we didn't handle that end of game situation as we'd like to," added Goodenbour. "We have to be able to focus whether we're up three or up 12 because you're not always going to have that cushion."
With the win, the Dons join a crowded pack of six other WCC teams sporting identical 3-2 conference records after Thursday's action.
The Dons will aim to start separating themselves from the pack when they travel to take on Pacific on Saturday afternoon with tip-off slated for 2 p.m. from the Spanos Center.
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