No. 2 seed BYU to face No. 3 San Francisco in WCC semifinals

LAS VEGAS — No. 2 seed BYU women’s basketball will take on No. 3 seed San Francisco in the semifinal round of the 2021 West Coast Conference Tournament on Monday, March 8, at 2 p.m. PST. The contest will be broadcast live on BYUtv and streamed on the WCC Network.

The Dons defeated No. 7 seed Saint Mary’s 69-63 in the quarterfinal round Saturday to earn a shot at the Cougars. BYU will be making its 2021 WCC Tournament debut on Monday, as the Cougars earned first, second and third-round byes after securing the No. 2 seed in the regular season.

BYU split the regular season series with San Francisco, with the Dons most recently beating the Cougars 86-72 on Feb. 27 in the regular season finale. BYU defeated San Francisco at home on Dec. 28, 70-46.

No. 2 BYU vs. No. 3 San Francisco Game Notes

2021 UCU WCC Women's Basketball Tournament Bracket

ABOUT NO. 2 BYU

Despite the Cougars’ 86-72 loss to San Francisco in the regular season finale, BYU has won eight of its last nine games and 11 of its last 13
The last time the Cougars entered the WCC Tournament as the No. 2 seed was in 2019, when BYU defeated Pepperdine in the semifinal round and Gonzaga in the championship game
2020-21 WCC Co-Player of the Year Shaylee Gonzales finished the regular season as the WCC’s second-leading scorer (18.52 ppg). Gonzales also leads the team in assists (3.71 apg) and steals (2.38 spg)
Lauren Gustin, a 2020-21 All-WCC First Team honoree, leads the WCC in rebounds per game (12.9 rpg) and ranks second nationally in the category. Gustin also ranks 10th in the country in double-doubles with 13
Sara Hamson, a 2020-21 All-WCC Honorable Mention, is the WCC’s leading shot-blocker with a 2.62 blocks-per-game average
Following Gonzales, Paisley Johnson Harding (13.7 ppg), Gustin (11.8 ppg) and Tegan Graham (7.9 ppg) round out the Cougars’ top-four scorers
In addition to Gonzales and Gustin, Harding was named to the 2020-21 All-WCC First Team while Graham was named an All-WCC Honorable Mention
Head coach Jeff Judkins was named the 2020-21 WCC Coach of the Year
As a team, BYU ranks 16th in the nation in assists per game (16.9 apg) and 26th in field-goal percentage defense (.362)

ABOUT NO. 3 SAN FRANCISCO

The Dons earned a spot in the WCC semifinals after pulling away late to defeat No. 7 seed Saint Mary’s 69-63 in Saturday’s quarterfinal round
After starting the season with a 5-8 record, San Francisco won nine of its last 10 regular season games to boost themselves into third place in the WCC standings
Freshman guard Ioanna Krimili finished the regular season as the WCC’s leading scorer with an 18.7 point-per-game average
Along with Krimili, senior guard Lucie Hoskova (14.0 ppg) and sophomore guard Amalie Langer (10.3 ppg) also averaged double figures in scoring on the season
Sophomore forward Lucija Kostic led the team in rebounds (5.4 rpg), assists (4.4 apg) and blocks (0.8 bpg) on the year
As a team, the Dons finished the regular season ranked first in the WCC in 3-pointers per game (7.74) and second in scoring offense (72.4 ppg) and 3-point percentage (.354)

SERIES HISTORY