Devashrayee shines in Cougars' 70-69 loss to Toreros

SAN DIEGO —Despite 23 points from senior guard Cassie Broadhead Devashrayee, BYU women’s basketball fell to San Diego 70-69 at Jenny Craig Pavilion on Saturday afternoon.

"We had the opportunity to win this game," BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. "We had the lead late and we didn't make foul shots when we needed to. We can't shoot 4 of 9 from the foul line on the road. Opposing teams give their best against us, and we always have to be ready to go."

Devashrayee led all scorers with 23 points, while Brenna Chase tallied 15 points. Sara Hamson and Malia Nawahine also scored in double figures, recording 12 and 11 points, respectively.

The Cougars (11-8, 6-2 WCC) and Toreros (12-7, 5-3 WCC) struggled to find their rhythm offensively through the first four minutes of the first quarter, as BYU led San Diego 4-2.

Nawahine gave the Cougars the 12-11 edge on a layup in the paint with 3:14 on the clock before the Toreros closed out the quarter outscoring the Cougars 10 to four. Nawahine led BYU with seven first-quarter points.

BYU started the second quarter on an 8-2 run, with Chase knocking down her second 3 of the game at the 8:01 mark, giving the Cougars the 24-23 advantage. After Devashrayee drained an 18-footer, the Toreros went on a 6-0 run to take the 35-28 lead, their largest lead of the game so far. Chase put a stop to the USD run and scored a layup to bring BYU within five, 35-30, as the halftime buzzer sounded.

The Toreros extended their lead to nine, 47-38, halfway through the third quarter. After Devashrayee answered with a 3-pointer to bring BYU back within six, 47-41, USD countered with a 5-0 run to increase its lead to 11.

Back-to-back layups by Hamson and Devashrayee helped the Cougars cut the USD advantage to six, 58-52, as the third quarter came to a close.

With 7:11 left in the game, Devashrayee scored in the paint to bring BYU within two, 60-58. After Chase drained another trey to help BYU regain the one-point, 63-62 edge, USD recaptured the lead by going on a 8-0 run.

A Devashrayee pull-up jumper followed by a layup by Chase put BYU back within one, 70-69 with 1:48 left. With eight seconds to go, Sydney Williams missed a 3-pointer to make it a two possession game, but the Toreros secured the offensive rebound.

The Toreros passed the ball in with six seconds left on the clock, which was deflected out of bounds. USD then passed the ball in on the baseline with two seconds left on the clock and no foul was called before the time expired.

BYU women’s basketball returns to the Marriott Center on Jan. 25 to take on Saint Mary’s. The game will begin at 7:00 p.m. MT and will be broadcast on BYUtv.

Postgame Notes at San Diego (Sat. 1/20/18)

Team
BYU shot 48.1 percent from the field in the first half and finished shooting 56.9 percent from the field. The Cougars shot 50 percent, going 7 of 14 from behind the arc.

For the fifth time on the season, BYU had four players scored in double figures: Devashrayee (23), Chase (15), Hamson (12) and Nawahine (11).

The Toreros had the advantage in the rebound category in the first half of play, grabbing rebounds 17 to the Cougars' 13. USD finished with 38 boards compared to BYU's 25.

At halftime, each team had two blocks. The Cougars recorded a total of eight in the game, while the Toreros finished with two.

BYU had the edge in steals in the first half, four to one. For the game, the Cougars finished with six steals to three for USD.

Player
Cassie Broadhead Devashrayee dished out four assists in the first half of action, the most of any player through 20 minutes of play. She also had five points and two steals. For the game, she finished with game bests in points with 23 points and in assists with five. Devashrayee also had team bests in steals with two.

Brenna Chase led all scorers through the first half of action with 10 points. She concluded the game with 15 for her 15th game with double-digit points and the fifth straight.

Sara Hamson grabbed the most rebounds in the half with eight. She pulled down a team-best nine boards in the game while picking up a season- and career-high 12 points. She also recorded a game-best five blocks.

Malia Nawahine scored seven points in the first half, and finished with 11 total points for her ninth contest of the year with double-digit points. She also grabbed four rebounds, had one assist, one block and one steal.