Eaton leads Cougars past Seasiders for third-straight victory

LAIE, Hawaii – Lexi Eaton led BYU women's basketball to a 73-52 win against BYU-Hawaii Thursday at the Cannon Activities Center. 

"We did a good job defensively today because they threw a lot of different stuff at us," BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. "Makenzi (Morrison) once again played well and got some big shots for us. It was good to see Alohi (Robins-Hardy) get some good minutes in the game today."

Eaton led the Cougars with 17 points to go along with four assists and three rebounds. Morgan Bailey led the team in rebounds with nine while contributing 13 points. Kylie Maeda had a team-high five assists while Makenzi Morrison added double-digit points with 10.

BYU (3-2) overpowered the Seasiders, collecting 43 boards to BYU-Hawaii's (2-2) 28. The Cougars also led in points in the paint 28-10 and bench points 29-9. 

Bailey and Morrison each made their first two buckets of the game en route to their team jumping out to a 12-2 lead over the Seasiders. Eaton continued to extend BYU's lead to 14 at 21-7 after nailing a 3-pointer with 12:59 left to go in the first half. 

BYU-Hawaii kept the score manageable, however, getting consecutive buckets to bring it within 11 at 24-13. The Cougars countered, scoring the next six points to go back up 30-13 with 7:39 remaining before the break.

Brydgette Tatupu-Leopoldo from the Seasiders hit a pair of shots from beyond-the-arc that were quickly countered by an Eaton trey to keep BYU up 41-20 with five minutes on the clock. The two sides traded points from there to end the half with the Cougars ahead by 20 at 45-25.

BYU scored the first five points of the second half, but BYU-Hawaii remained undeterred, hitting a jump shot with 15:12 left in the game to bring it within 53-31. The Cougars ensued with a 7-2 run, capped off by an Ashley Garfield free throw, to extend their lead to 27 at 60-33.

A pair of Kristine Fuller free throws ended a three minute scoring drought from both sides as the points brought BYU's advantage back up to 27 at 62-35 with just under seven minutes remaining in the game. The teams exchanged baskets from there with the Cougars eventually coming out with a 73-52 victory.

The Cougars stay on the islands for one final game in the Tom Weston Invitational, facing No. 19 Oregon State Saturday at 1 p.m. HST. Links to live stats can be found on the BYU women's basketball schedule page.

Postgame Notes

Team

The Cougars led the Seasiders by 20, 45-25 at the break. The points are the most that BYU has tallied in a first half to date. The Cougars defeated BYU-Hawaii by 21, 73-52, making it the largest margin of victory to date.

BYU got 28 points in the paint compared with 10 for BYU-Hawaii. The Cougars also tallied 17 points off of Seasider miscues.

The Cougar bench had a strong showing in the win, contributing 29 points. BYU-Hawaii got nine points from its bench.

In the rebound category, BYU pulled down 15 more boards than BYU-Hawaii, finishing with 43. The Seasiders grabbed 28 boards in the game.

Player

Lexi Eaton led all scorers with 14 points at the break. She ended with a team-best 17 points making it the third-straight time this year that she’s recorded double figures in points. Eaton went 5 of 6 from the charity stripe, dished out four assists and had one steal.

Morgan Bailey pulled down six rebounds in the first half, the most in the period. She finished with a game-best nine boards along with 13 points, one assist, one block and one steal.

Makenzi Morrison scored 10 points in the game, making it the second-straight outing she’s recorded double digits in points. She also had three steals and one assist.

For the second-straight game, Kylie Maeda has dished out the most assists on the team. In the contest vs. BYU-Hawaii she dished out five assists.

Micaelee Orton played nine minutes off the bench, grabbing four rebounds and scoring six points.

Savannah Irwin played 12 minutes and contributed two points and pulled down four rebounds in the BYU win.