Johnson’s career night leads BYU to overtime win against Pacific

STOCKTON, Calif. — Paisley Johnson scored a career-high 31 points to lead the BYU women’s basketball team to a 76-66 overtime win against Pacific Thursday night at the Alex D. Spanos Center.

BYU at Pacific Final Box Score

"Paisley had an outstanding game for us," BYU head coach Jeff Judkins said. "Offensively it was one of her best games ever. I thought as a team we played really well defensively, especially at the beginning of the game and in the overtime. Sara was very active for us again. This is a really good road win for us."

Johnson led all scorers with 31 points on nine of 15 shooting to go along with five assists, two rebounds, two steals and one block. Brenna Chase Drollinger followed with 17 points while also adding seven rebounds, five assists and two steals. Jasmine Moody added nine points and seven rebounds while Sara Hamson contributed 12 rebounds, a season-high eight blocks and four points. 

The Cougars (9-7, 4-2 WCC) shot 41.9 percent from the floor on the night while holding the Tigers (11-7, 4-3 WCC) to just 32 percent.

With Pacific leading 60-59 with just under four minutes left in the game, a deep 3-pointer by Drollinger gave the Cougars a 62-60 advantage. Johnson then drained a pair of free throws to extend BYU’s advantage to four, 64-60, with under three minutes left.

After both teams went scoreless over the following two minutes, back-to-back Cougar turnovers in the backcourt led to consecutive Pacific baskets to tie the game at 64 with 31 seconds remaining in regulation.

BYU came up empty on its following offensive possession, and the Tigers missed a potential game-winner as time expired to send the game into overtime.

Drollinger drilled a 3-pointer from the right wing to give the Cougars a 67-64 lead one minute into the overtime period. Moody then scored a reverse lay-in to put BYU up five, 69-64, with 3:11 left.

Neither team scored over the next two minutes until Drollinger converted a pair of free throws to increase the Cougars’ lead to seven, 71-64, with 1:10 remaining in overtime. Pacific scored its first overtime basket to cut BYU’s advantage to five, 71-66, but a corner three by Johnson put the Cougars up 74-66 with 37 seconds left.

Two more free throws by Johnson with 16 seconds remaining sealed the overtime win for BYU, as the Cougars came out on top 76-66.

Johnson opened the scoring for BYU with a 3-pointer from the left wing to give the Cougars a 3-2 advantage three minutes into the first quarter. Back-to-back triples from Maria Albiero then put BYU up 9-4. Another trey from the left wing by Johnson followed by a wide-open layup by Ugwu increased the Cougars’ lead to six, 14-8, with just over a minute left in the quarter. A Pacific 3-pointer brought the score to 14-11 for BYU at the end of the first period.

Both teams traded baskets to start the second quarter, with consecutive baskets in the paint by Moody giving the Cougars a 19-15 lead. A pair of free throws by Johnson followed by back-to-back transition layups by Drollinger extended BYU’s lead to ten, 25-15. A Salmon free-throw line jumper followed by a layup and a free throw by Johnson then brought the score to 30-20 for the Cougars.

The Tigers responded, however, with a 9-0 run to cut BYU’s lead to one, 30-29, with 3:42 remaining in the first half. Both teams traded baskets the remainder of the half as the Cougars took a 34-33 advantage into the locker room.

After Johnson opened the second-half scoring with a layup, Hamson converted a pair of free throws and Johnson made another layup to put BYU up 40-36. Moody found Hamson with a lob pass down low to set up a wide-open Hamson layup to give the Cougars a 43-37 lead four minutes into the third quarter.

A Johnson midrange jumper followed by a Drollinger triple put BYU up 48-39 with 2:55 left in the third period. Drollinger then hit a pull up midrange jumper, but a 5-0 Tiger run to close the quarter brought the score to 50-46 for the Cougars heading into the final period.

Pacific opened the fourth quarter with five unanswered points to take a 51-50 advantage, but a put back layup by Shalae Salmon followed by a Johnson triple put BYU back on top 55-52. After the Tigers responded with a 7-2 run, a layup by Moody tied the game at 59 halfway through the final period.

After the game went into overtime with the score tied at 64 at the end of regulation, the Cougars outscored Pacific 12-2 in the extra period to secure the 76-66 win.

BYU remains on the road this weekend, taking on Saint Mary’s on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 2 p.m. PST at the University Credit Union Pavilion. The game will have a live video stream on the WCC Network.

Team Notes

• With the 76-66 overtime win over Pacific, BYU improved its record to 9-7, 4-2 on the year. The Cougars are now 9-1 on the year when they lead at halftime.
• The Cougars shot 42.9 percent from the field, 36.4 percent from 3-point range and 85.7 percent from the free-throw line through the first 20 minutes of action. For the game, they finished shooting 41.9 percent from the field, 39.1 percent from behind the arc and 88.2 percent from the free-throw line.
• Heading into the break, BYU led the way in rebounds with 15 to Pacific’s 14. For the game, the Cougars had pulled down 39 rebounds to the Tigers 32.
• BYU finished the game with the advantage in assists with 18 to Pacific’s 14. The Tigers had the edge in steals with 14 to the Cougars' nine.

Player Notes

• Paisley Johnson led all scorers in the first half with 13 points, the 13th time this year that she’s scored in double figures. She also had two assists, one rebound and was perfect at the charity stripe 5 of 5. For the game, she finished with a career- and game-high 31 points while going 9 for 9 from the free-throw line. Johnson tied for game highs in assists with five, while also recording two steals, one block and two rebounds.
• Brenna Chase Drollinger led the way in assists with three along with four points and two steals in the first half of action. She picked up her ninth game with 10+points with a total of 17 points.  Drollinger tied for game bests in assists with a game-best five to go along with seven rebounds and two steals.
• Sara Hamson led the way in blocks and rebounds for BYU finishing the contest with a game- and season-high eight blocks and a team-best 12 rebounds. She also contributed four points in the win.
• Maria Albiero ended the game with eight points, seven rebounds, four assists and two steals.
• Jasmine Moody finished the game with nine points, seven rebounds, one assist and a team-best three steals.