Fourth straight road conference game is at USF

With an 87-80 overtime victory at Santa Clara, BYU women’s basketball (18-5, 8-4) continues West Coast Conference action on the road. The Cougars stay in northern California to play at San Francisco (9-14, 4-8), Saturday at 2 p.m. PST. Fans can follow the action live on BYU Radio.

About BYU
Senior center Jennifer Hamson leads the BYU team in points, rebounds and blocked shots with 17.6 points and 11.1 rebounds per game while averaging 4.1 blocks.  Nationally, Hamson leads the nation in blocked shots, ranks 12th in double-doubles, 13th in field goal percentage and 21st in rebounds per game.

Three other Cougar players are also recording double figures in points with Lexi Eaton putting up 16.7 followed by 11.4 points from Kim Beeston. Junior forward Morgan Bailey rounds out the scoring output contributing 10.3 points. She ranks third in rebounds, pulling down 7.2 per contest.

As a team, the Cougar women are averaging 71.8 points per game and are holding opponents to 65.1 points. BYU, who ranks fifth in the country in blocked shots per game, has recorded more blocks than opponents in 20 games and has dished out more assists in 17 of the 22 games played to date. They have also recorded more rebounds than opponents in 18 contests.

• Head coach: Jeff Judkins (Utah, ‘78) 13th season
• Team’s leading scorer: #5 Hamson, 17.6 ppg
• Team’s leading rebounder: #5 Hamson, 11.1 rpg
• Team’s assists leader: #4 Beeston, 3.6 apg
• Team’s steals leader: #4 Beeston, 1.2 spg
• Team’s blocks leader: #5 Hamson, 4.0 bpg

About USF
San Francisco (9-14, 4-8), is coming off a huge 78-74 home win over San Diego.

Taylor Proctor is one of four players that are scoring in double figures for the Dons with a team-best 13.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Zhane Dikes  is next with 12.2 points per contest. Teammate Taj Winston contributes 10.7 points and rounding out the double-digit scoring output is Rachel Howard who is putting up 10.5 points per game.  San Francisco is scoring 69.0 points per game, pulls down 38.3 rebounds, and is shooting 40 percent from the field and 71 percent from the free throw line.

• Head coach: Jennifer Azzi (Stanford, ‘90) 4th season
• Team’s leading scorer: #32 Proctor, 13.3 ppg
• Team’s leading rebounder: #32 Proctor, 7.3 rpg
• Team’s assists leader: #1 Dikes, 2.5 apg
• Team’s steals leader: #2 Winston, 1.7 spg
• Team’s blocks leader: #11 Howard, 0.8 bpg

Series History
BYU leads the series 9-2. When playing in San Francisco, the Cougars have a  3-1 record. The last time they played at War Memorial Gym was on Jan. 26, 2013 during last year’s league race. In that contest, San Francisco picked up the 65-56 win. It was the first time that BYU had lost a game to the Dons in San Francisco.

Last Meeting
BYU went to 5-3 in conference play after an 81-47 victory at home against San Francisco earlier this year. The Cougars opened up the game on an 11-0 run and never looked back. BYU picked up a new season highs in rebounds (58) and blocks (12). The Cougars outshot the Dons 46 percent to just 21 percent and won the battle of points in the paint, 30-10.

Kim Beeston recorded her first career double-double from 11 points and 10 assists. Morgan Bailey (13 points, 12 rebounds) and Jennifer Hamson (14 points, 17 rebounds) also picked up double-doubles. Hamson recorded 17 rebounds to tie her career high in the category for the second-straight game. She was two blocks shy of a triple-double. Lexi Eaton led the team in scoring with 23 points. Ashley Garfield hit double-digits in rebounds by coming off the bench with 10.

Up Next
After the game at San Francisco, the Cougar women return to Provo to play two WCC teams in the Marriott Center. BYU hosts Portland, Thursday, Feb. 13 and  No. 15 ranked Gonzaga, Saturday, Feb. 15.