Devashrayee reaches milestone in 70-66 win over San Francisco

BYU vs. San Francisco Box Score

PROVO, Utah – Cassie Broadhead Devashrayee surpassed 1,000 points in her BYU career as the Cougars beat San Francisco 70-66 Thursday night at the Marriott Center.

"San Francisco is a really scrappy team," BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. "They did a really good job tonight of spreading us out and making our bigs have to go outside. We didn't play like we normally do, and you have to give them credit for that. We seemed a little sluggish tonight and I don't know the reason for it, but I'm just happy that we pulled it out and made some stops when we had to."

Devashrayee finished with 18 points on the way to her milestone, with a team-high nine rebounds. Malia Nawahine led BYU with a career-high 23 points.

BYU's (7-7, 2-1) early lead was erased quickly when the Dons (6-8, 1-2) hit a 3-pointer to lead 10-9. Nawahine answered with her own 3 to put the Cougars up 12-10. San Francisco scored the next two times down the floor to go up 14-12 with four minutes left in the first quarter.

With just under two minutes in the quarter, Devashrayee hit a jumper to tie the game at 18-18. Brenna Chase buried 3s on consecutive possessions to put BYU up 24-18. The Dons scored with less than five seconds left for a 24-20 Cougar lead heading into the second quarter. Nawahine scored 10 points in the period.

Nawahine knocked down a 3-pointer two minutes into the second quarter to put BYU up 29-24. After a four-minute scoring drought from both teams, Nawahine made two free throws to make it 31-24 with four minutes left.

With 1:26 left in the second quarter, San Francisco hit a 3-pointer to trail just 34-31. The two teams traded points as the Cougars went into the locker room with a 36-33 lead. With 18 points, Nawahine led all scorers.

A Don free throw tied the game at 36-36 early in the third quarter. BYU scored four of the next five baskets, including 3-pointers from Devashrayee and Nawahine, for a 46-39 lead. Nawahine's 3 gave her 21 points to tie her career high as a Cougar. San Francisco clawed back and trailed 50-47 at the end of the third quarter.

The Dons got off to a strong start in the fourth quarter to lead 53-52 with just over seven minutes left in the game. After trailing 55-52, BYU got a lay-in from Shalae Salmon and free throws from Paisley Johnson to regain the lead at 56-55. San Francisco hit two free throws with three minutes left to lead 59-58. Devashrayee buried free throws, the first of which got her to the 1,000-point mark, on the other end for a 60-59 Cougar advantage.

Once again, the Dons got two free throws to fall for a 61-60 lead. On the other end, Johnson put the Cougars back on top, 62-61, with a layup she made while being fouled. Devashrayee hit a 3 with just over a minute to play to make it a four-point BYU advantage. She made a pair of free throws with 39 seconds left to put the Cougars up 67-61.

On Saturday, BYU hosts Pacific at 2 p.m. MST. The game will be televised on BYUtv with a radio broadcast on BYU Radio (Sirius XM 143).

BYU vs. San Francisco Postgame Notes

Team
BYU took the narrow 36-33 lead into halftime, and secured the four-point 70-66 victory. With the win, the Cougars are now 5-0 when leading at the half.

The Cougars have now scored at least 70 points in 9 of 14 games to date.

For the third time this season, two Cougars scored in double digits: Nawahine (23) and Devashrayee (18).

The Cougars recorded 14 assists, while the Dons tallied 12. BYU had nine blocks to USF’s two.

BYU outscored San Francisco in points in the paints, scoring 24 to the Dons’ 22.

The Cougars finished the contest with a season-best 3-point field goal percentage, shooting 57.1 percent from behind the arc.

Player 
At the 2:59 mark of the fourth quarter, Cassie Broadhead Devashrayee knocked down a free throw to give her 1,000 points in her BYU career. She is the 28th Cougar to join the BYU women’s basketball 1000-point club. Devashrayee finished the game with 18 points. The senior guard also recorded a team-high nine rebounds, team-high four assists and one steal in the win. With her two 3-pointers, Devashrayee passes Stacy Jensen for 16th place in all-time BYU 3-pointers.

Malia Nawahine scored 10 of the Cougars’ first 14 points, and had a game-high 18 points in the first half. Nawahine finished the contest with a BYU career-high 23 points on 7 of 16 shooting. The transfer pulled down seven rebounds, had two assists and recorded a team-high two steals.

Sara Hamson recorded her first career start against the Dons. The freshman scored eight points, tied a career-high nine rebounds and recorded three blocks.

Brenna Chase tallied nine points, three rebounds, two assists and one steal in the win.

Cassie Broadhead Devashrayee
On reaching 1,000 career points

I didn't know I was there, honestly. It's just a privilege to join great BYU players. I credit my teammates and coaches for putting me in positions to get the ball and score. It's mostly due to them. More than anything, I'm just glad we could get the win tonight.

Coach Jeff Judkins
On Malia Nawahine's big night

I thought Malia had a great game tonight, especially in the first half. She really gave us a spark that we needed. She really kept us in the game and hit some shots. Tonight she had to play the four the second half because of fouls and how they were running their offense, but she just did a solid job for us. She played probably one of her best games. 

On Cassie Devashrayee's milestone

It really is a pretty special deal. A lot of players get these points in their career as they started as a freshman. Cassie did this in two years, which means a lot. That's a great honor for her. She has been an incredible player here. People have been very lucky to watch her play. It's a great honor for her and she is in a really good class.