For much of Tuesday’s West Coast Conference tournament game, BYU’s women’s basketball team looked like they would beat Gonzaga and win the NCAA automatic tournament offer.
That didn’t happen after Jill Townsend hit a jumper when the time expired to lift the Bulldogs to a 43-42 victory.
Now, the cougars will have to wait to find out if they have done enough for an overall NCAA bid.
Here are three lessons from the game:
- The Cougars cooled down at the absolutely wrong time in a game where points were valuable. BYU scored just six points in the fourth period and only two in the last 3:34 of the game, after taking a nine-point lead in the final period. While the Zags hit 28.6% in the game, they hit 5 of 13 shots in the final quarter, including Townsend’s victory in a play on the field in the second final.
- Yvonne Ejim was the catalyst behind Gonzaga’s rally. She had just four points in the fourth period, but Ejim finished with the game’s best score, drawing 13 points and scoring the first six points of the fourth period to help the Zags make the game with possession. While BYU responded with consecutive marks to push his lead back to seven in 40-33, Ejim scored three more in a 6-0 run to make 40-39 with 1:34 to play.
- BYU, which entered the day with a NET ranking of 51, needed a victory to ensure it would not have to worry about the NCAA selection show. But it was far from a perfect effort, since the cougars kicked 35.3% and turned the ball over 15 times. BYU maintained the lead for more than 30 minutes, but despite holding Gonzaga with 13 points in the first half, the Cougars failed to maintain the lead in a heartbreaking defeat.