Steed's 18 not enough in Cougar loss

MORAGA, Calif.—With the lead slipping away as the second half expired, the BYU women’s basketball team couldn’t rally to prevent a 64-52 Saint Mary’s victory on the road Saturday.

With the Saint Mary’s win, BYU (16-6, 7-3 West Coast Conference) drops out of the tie for second place in the league while the Gaels (16-6, 8-2 WCC) retain sole ownership behind No. 1 Gonzaga.

“We have to move on and realize we have our backs against the wall,” BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. “We just have to take it one game at a time.”

Haley Steed led the Cougar effort with 18 points on six 3-pointers, shooting 54.5 percent from 3-point land. She also contributed seven assists and four rebounds.

“Haley’s tough,” Judkins said. “Haley’s a competitor. That’s how she plays when things aren’t right.” 

Steed was helped out by Keilani Unga, who contributed 12 points and five rebounds.

BYU struggled with early turnovers, giving Saint Mary’s five points off eight BYU turnovers. Down 14-8, Steed drained her second 3-pointer of the afternoon. An offensive rebound by Jennifer Hamson gave Steed a chance for a second-straight trey to tie it up at 14.

Unga added to Steed’s six points with a layup of her own, drawing the BYU run out to 8-0 and pushing the Cougars into their first lead of the game at 16-14. Steed drained another from 3-point land, her fourth of the game, to get the point guard into double figures and the BYU lead to 21-16.

The Cougars shot 50 percent from beyond the arc thanks to Steed’s 4 for 7 shooting and Stephanie Vermunt Seaborn’s 2 for 4 shooting. Overall BYU shot 52.4 percent in the first half.

The Gaels chipped BYU’s lead down to two on back-to-back field goals with just over four minutes to play until halftime. The Cougars held on, heading into halftime with a 30-28 lead.

A Gael 3-pointer opened the second half, but Steed responded with another from downtown to retake the lead. The teams leapfrogged back and forth for seven lead changes before Gael Mia Greco sank back-to-back jumpers for a 43-40 Saint Mary’s lead.

A 12-2 Gael run left BYU scrambling to get back in the game. Trailing 57-47 with 2:25 to play, BYU increased its score to 52 on a 3-pointer by Morgan Bailey, but it wasn’t enough to beat the seven additional points from Saint Mary’s.

BYU returns to the Marriott Center to host Santa Clara in a Valentine’s Day breast cancer awareness pink game on Thursday at 7 p.m. MST. The game airs live on BYUtv.

Postgame Notes

Team

Both teams shot 50 percent from 3-point range in the first half with BYU making seven treys to SMC’s two. For the game, the Cougars shot 46 percent from behind the arc making 11-of-24 treys.

For the 19^th time this season, BYU dished out more assists than its opponents. The Cougars had 15 and the Gaels had 13.

BYU recorded six blocks to SMC’s four.

Player

Haley Steed scored three straight treys to tie the score at 14 with 9:42 left in the first half. At halftime she led all scorers with 12 points, ending the game with a game-high 18 for her 10^th double-figure score in points this season. Steed also had the most assists in the game with seven.

Keilani Unga put up 12 points marking her sixth game with double digits in points and the fourth straight.

Kim Parker Beeston led BYU in rebounds with seven, scored three points and had four assists.

Jennifer Hamson had a game-high four blocks.