No. 3 BYU plays No. 6 seed Pepperdine at WCC Basketball Championships, Saturday

PROVO, Utah— BYU women’s basketball heads to the 2020 UCU WCC Women’s Basketball Championships as the No. 3 seed. The Cougars and San Diego had identical 13-5 records with the Toreros claiming the No. 2 seed by virtue of a tiebreaking series against Portland.

BYU vs. Pepperdine Game Notes

2020 WCC Women's Basketball Championships Bracket

Ticket Information

BYU will play No 6 seed Pepperdine in the second quarterfinal game on Saturday, March 7, at 3 p.m. PT. The game will be broadcast live on BYUtv, the BYUtv App, on NBCSCA/Root NW and on the WCC Network.

In Thursday’s first-round matchup, No. 7 seed St. Mary’s takes on No. 10 seed LMU. Then on Friday, No. 6 seed Pepperdine plays the winner between SMC and LMU. That winner will then play BYU in the semifinals.

ABOUT BYU

• With an 18-10, 13-5 record, BYU women’s basketball tied with San Diego for second place in the WCC race and enters the WCC Championships as the No. 3 seed
• The team averages 60.5 ppg and 40.1 rpg; is 18-5 when it gets more blocks than opponents; is 16-2 when dishing out more assists than opponents; is 16-1 when leading at the half
• BYU is holding opponents to just 54.5 points and is allowing only 37.8 rebounds a game
• The Cougars are nationally ranked second in field goal percentage defense (31.9); third in blocked shots per game (6.8) and in blocked shots (189); 11th in scoring defense (54.5); 16th in defensive rebounds (29.0)
• In the WCC, BYU is first in field goal percentage defense, in rebounding offense, in blocked shots and in defensive rebounds; ranks second in scoring defense; places third in scoring margin, in 3-point field goal percentage defense, in assists and in 3-point field goals made
• Paisley Johnson leads in scoring with a 15.2 average; ranks 28th all-time in career points with 1,057; Brenna Drollinger tallies 12.3 points; is 20th all-time in career points with 1,294; leads in assists and steals with 4.3 and & 1.8 averages
• Sara Hamson leads in rebounds and blocks, with 8.0 boards and 4.75 blocks; ranks first in the nation in blocked shots (133) and in blocked shots per game (4.75); ranks third all-time at BYU in career blocks with 332 (needs 8 to tie her sister Jennifer with 340 career blocks and nine to rank second all-time at BYU)
• Three Cougar players received WCC accolades as announced by the league Tuesday; Sara Hamson was named WCC Women’s Basketball Defensive Player of the Year;  it’s the second honor for Hamson as she picked up the same award her freshman campaign; Drollinger and Johnson were named to the WCC Women’s Basketball First Team; the award is the third for Drollinger; Hamson made the WCC Women’s Basketball Second Team; both Drollinger and Hamson were named to the 2019-20 Preseason All-WCC Team; all of the league awards are voted on by the 10 head coaches

PEPPERDINE SERIES HISTORY 

• The Cougars hold a 21-3 record in the all-time series with Pepperdine; this will be just the third time that the Cougars and Waves meet in the quarterfinals of the WCC Champs;
• in the previous two matchups, BYU has won both games (a 72-59 win on March 4, 2016 and a 77-51 win on March 7, 2014); last year, the two teams met in the semifinals with the Cougars picking up the 68-63 win 
• In this year’s conference race, BYU swept the series, winning 65-47 in Malibu on Dec. 30 and then tallied  a two-point, 66-66 victory in Provo on Feb. 27; Saturday’s contest between the two foes marks just nine days since playing each other;  

ABOUT PEPPERDINE

• Pepperdine advanced to the second quarterfinal game of the 2020 UCU WCC Women’s Basketball Championships with an 87-72 victory over St. Mary’s in the second round; the Waves finished the league race in sixth place
• Three players are scoring in double figures for the Waves led by 11.4 points a game from Hannah Friend; she’s followed by Malia Bambrick who’s contributing 10.6 points a contest; the final player who puts up double-digit points is Barbara Sitanggan who’s tallying 10.1 points, a team-best 4.8 assists and a team-high 2.4 steals a game
• Monique Andriuolo tops the leaderboard in rebounds with 7.3 boards a game; Andriuolo has the most blocks on the team with 37 for a 1.3 average
• Pepperdine shoots 65.9 points and is pulling down 37.8 boards while holding opponents to 65.8 points and 41.6 rebounds; the Waves shoot 37.6 percent from the field; 32.7 percent from behind the arc and 67.2 percent from the charity stripe

UP NEXT

A win in the quarterfinals would send the Cougars into the second semifinal on Monday, March 9 where they will play No. 2 seed San Diego. That game is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. PDT.