No. 20 BYU women defeat Washington State 71-53

Posted December 18, 2021 6:00 am

The Associated Press

PROVO, Utah (AP) - Paisley Harding scored 20 points, Tegan Graham added 15 and No. 20-ranked BYU pulled away for a 71-53 win over Washington State on Saturday.

Shaylee Gonzales added 13 points and Sara Hamson 10 for BYU (9-1), which rebounded after after losing its first game of the season 99-91 in overtime at Oklahoma. Lauren Gustin snared 13 rebounds as BYU had a 50-35 rebounding advantage.

Charlisse Leger-Walker hit 6 of 10 3-pointers and scored 21 points for Washington State (8-2), which had won four straight since losing to then No. 5 North Carolina State. Ula Motuga had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

BYU led by as many as 16 points in the second quarter but Washington State steadily worked its way back.

Washington State hit a pair of 3-pointers to open the fourth quarter to close within 47-46. Hamson countered with a pair of inside buckets and Graham, who had a school-record 10 3-pointers at Oklahoma, followed with a 3 to put BYU back in control with 6:14 to go. Harding added another 3 after a WSU timeout for a 57-46 lead.

Washington State missed 15 of its last 17-shot attempts.

WSU was 13 of 31 (42%) from long distance but just 3 of 29 from inside the arc.

It was the fifth-straight game against a Power 5 team for BYU.

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More AP women's college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25

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