BYU cruises past San Francisco

PROVO, Utah— BYU beat San Francisco 81-47 behind 23 points from Lexi Eaton and double-doubles by Kim Beeston, Morgan Bailey and Jennifer Hamson.

"I was really happy tonight," head coach Jeff Judkins said. "I thought defensively the first half was one of our best defensive efforts that we’ve had in a while. It’s nice to see two of your bigs have double-doubles and really dominate inside. That gave us an advantage today and hopefully they’ll continue to do that when we play (San Francisco) again and as we play other teams."

Highlights and Interviews

Eaton’s game high led four Cougars (15-4, 5-3 WCC) in double figures. Beeston scored 11 and tied a career high with 10 assists. Bailey had 13 points and 12 rebounds. Hamson finished with a near triple-double, tying a career high with 17 rebounds to go along with 14 points and eight blocks for her 12th double-double of the season. Ashley Garfiled pitched in 10 rebounds. 

Zhane Dikes led the Dons (7-12, 2-6 WCC) with 13 points and five rebounds. Taylor Proctor contributed seven points and nine rebounds.

The Cougars got off to a quick 11-0 lead in the first three minutes of the game, highlighted by back-to-back 3’s from Eaton and Kylie Maeda. Hamson had five blocks in the first 6:36 of the game and finished with six in the half. After the Dons cut the lead to 16-9, the Cougars scored the next 12 straight to extend their lead to 28-9. Eaton had six points during that stretch and the last 12 BYU points of the half. The Cougars held the Dons to 16 percent shooting to take a 34-12 lead into the break.

The BYU lead hovered above 20 until the Cougars used a 12-1 run to extend the lead to 68-35 with just over six minutes left in the game to put the game out of reach.

Kim Beeston hit two 3’s early in the second half to move into fourth place all-time in 3-pointers made with 205, passing Kari Gallup.

The Cougars return to action Saturday when they host Santa Clara at 2 p.m. MST at the Marriott Center. The game can be seen live on BYUtv.

Postgame Notes

Team

The Cougars opened the game on an 11-0 in the first 3:18 of play.

BYU held San Francisco to 21 percent shooting while the Cougars shot 46 percent from the field on the night. BYU won the assist ratio 21-6 as well as the rebound battle 58-34. The 58 rebounds set a new season high for the year. The 12 blocks for BYU were also a season high for the Cougars.

This was the seventh game of the season where BYU scored at least 80 points. BYU got 30 of its points in the paint, compared to just 10 for the Dons.

The Cougars’ 13 turnovers were the second fewest of the year.

Player

Morgan Bailey (13 points, 12 rebounds), Kim Beeston (11 points, 10 assists) and Jennifer Hamson (14 points, 17 rebounds) all finished the game with double-doubles. This was Beeston’s first career double-double.

Jennifer Hamson had five blocks in the first 6:36 of play. She finished the first half with 10 boards and six blocks. Hamson ended the game grabbing 17 boards to tie her career high for the second-straight game. She also had 14 points and eight blocks, one shy of her career high.

Lexi Eaton had 15 of BYU’s 34 points at halftime and finished with a game-high 23 to go along with three rebounds.

Kim Beeston led the team in assists with 10 to tie her career high and hit three 3-pointers to put her ahead of Kari Gallup for fourth all-time in career 3-pointers made.

Ashley Garfield finished the game in double digit rebounds with 10.