The Cougars forced 23 turnovers in a 76-44 win.
(Chuck Burton | AP) BYU’s Tegan Graham (10) reacts after making a 3-pointer against Rutgers late in the second half of a college basketball game in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Tournament at the University Events in San Marcos, Texas, Monday, March 22, 2021.
Provisional anger member • BYU alumni shooting guard Tegan Graham noticed something that she later relayed to her teammates late in the first quarter of Thursday’s 76-44 win over Santa Clara.
One Broncos player said she couldn’t breathe, an apparent indication that BYU’s speed was wearing down the Northern California team. Graham implored his team to keep picking up the pace in transition.
“We can breathe,” Graham said.
But it wasn’t just BYU’s fast pace of offense that gave the Broncos trouble. The Cougars did not allow their opponents to breathe when they he played offense.
BYU forced 23 turnovers and scored 23 points from them. He racked up 16 steals, with sophomore guard Shaylee Gonzales catching five of them.
Asked if Thursday was BYU’s best defensive performance of the season, coach Jeff Judkins said, “He was right there.”
“Everything was aggressive and they rotated very, very well and were very active,” Judkins said.
Santa Clara had trouble getting open shots. There was a stretch linking the first and second quarters in which the Broncos didn’t score a point for about 10 minutes of playing time.
BYU lost just once in the game, when the score was 7-6 early in the first quarter. The Broncos scored just 12 points for the rest of the half.
Santa Clara’s 44 points were their lowest total of the season.
Graham said not only have the team’s rotations been much more accurate lately, but the Cougars are also getting better at knowing their opponents’ tendencies and exploiting them.
“It’s just IQ,” Graham said. “Forcing people in certain ways and choosing which shooter to close, which side to close [on]. All that kind of stuff, the coaches do a great job of scouting and making sure we have a great game plan. And I think what we do is execute it really well.”
Graham led the Cougars in scoring with 16 points on 6-for-10 shooting and added four assists. Gonzales had 13 points and nine assists along with his nine steals.
“She anticipates very well,” Judkins said when asked why Gonzales is so adept at getting steals. “As he walks through the game plan and watches the movie, I guarantee you he looks at it and says, ‘Where can I have a chance to get it at this position?'”
Graham added: “Shaylee plays very hard. … He gets steals like that because he anticipates and plays hard. She is 100% all the time.”
Before Thursday night’s game against Santa Clara, BYU had been strangling conference opponents, averaging a 28.8 margin of victory in their previous four games. But the Broncos were third in the conference in scoring, averaging 70 points per game, five points short of BYU’s West Coast Conference-leading total.
The Cougars also, for at least one game, fixed a bugaboo they’ve been dealing with in recent games: turnovers. They committed just 10 against Santa Clara. The last time those few committed was Dec. 21 against Montana State-Bozeman.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism