Provo • BYU graduate guard Tegan Graham noticed something that she then relayed to her teammates at the end of the first quarter of Thursday’s 76-44 win over Santa Clara.
One Broncos player had said she couldn’t breathe, an apparent indication that BYU’s speed was tiring out the team from northern California. Graham implored her team to continue pushing the pace in transition.
“We can breathe,” Graham said.
But it wasn’t only BYU’s fast pace on offense that gave the Broncos problems. The Cougars didn’t allow their opponents to breathe when they played offense.
BYU forced 23 turnovers and scored 23 points off them. It amassed 16 steals, with sophomore guard Shaylee Gonzales grabbing five of those.
Coming into Thursday night’s game against Santa Clara, the BYU women’s basketball team had been throttling conference opponents, averaging a margin of victory of 28.8 in its previous four games. But the Broncos were third in the conference in scoring, averaging 70 points per game — five points less than BYU’s West Coast Conference-leading total.
Santa Clara’s 44 points was its lowest total of the season.
This story will be updated.
