PROVO, Utah — Saint Mary's Women's Basketball hit the road on Thursday for a highly-anticipated matchup against BYU, a preseason contender for the WCC crown. The Gaels were up to the task in this one, showing up and showing out in the first 15 minutes of play, holding a lead as large as six points early on. The Cougars found their stride, however, and came out on top with an 80-63 victory over Saint Mary's, dropping the Gaels to 2-10 (0-6) and sending BYU to 8-2 (4-1).
 
SMOOTH STARTING
The Gaels fell behind 13-5 midway through the first, but they closed the first quarter in style. While the Gaels were still shooting at just over 30% in the first quarter, they were a force on the offensive glass, with eight first quarter offensive rebounds, leading to six more shots than the Cougars. The Gaels took full advantage of this, ending the quarter on a 14-6 run to tie it at 19-19. Six different Gaels scored and seven Gaels grabbed rebounds.
 
GLASS GAME STRONG
A staple of the early-season Gaels was their strong performance on the glass during each contest, boasting one of the best rebounding margins in the country. That was on display early in the game against BYU, and helped the Gaels lead by six mid-way through the second quarter. At one point, Saint Mary's had as many offensive rebounds (10) as BYU had total rebounds in the game. Brianna Simonich led the Gaels in that department with 11 total boards in the game, her seventh 10+ rebound performance of the year.
 
HOLLAND AND 14
Five times during the first seven games of the year, Madeline Holland scored 14 points. She had not done so since the conference opener on December 30, but on Thursday against BYU, she got 14 points again to lead the Gaels. On the BYU broadcast, they highlighted her as a player the Gaels needed to step up, and she did just that. Holland was 6-10 from the floor and hit a pair of threes, while also adding two rebounds and two assists.
 
AMONG OTHER NUMBERS
Ellie Croco recorded her third-straight career-best performance, putting up 13 points for the Gaels, including 10 points in the first 15 minutes of game action, and going 3-4 from range…the Gaels got a familiar face back in the lineup as Emily Codding played for the first time since tearing her ACL in January of 2020 and she played 14 minutes, scoring nine points and grabbing eight rebounds…Taycee Wedin went 3-6 from beyond the arc to get her to 11 points on the night, part of a 10 three-pointer effort from SMC, their fourth such game of the year.
 
UP NEXT
With Saturday's road contest against San Diego postponed, Saint Mary's will head home and host Pepperdine and LMU next week. The Waves come to town on Thursday, with tip-off scheduled for 6:30 pm and the Lions will make their way to UCU Pavilion on Saturday for a 1:00 pm contest.