Provo • The BYU women’s basketball team waited for this moment all season. The moment when the Cougars could officially say the West Coast Conference title belonged to them and only them.
The Cougars secured the outright championship Saturday with a blowout 82-52 road win over Pacific, bringing their WCC record to 15-1 and 25-2 overall. It’s the team’s first conference title since the 2015-16 season.
“This is big for our program to be able to win this conference,” coach Jeff Judkins said via videoconference after the game. “Gonzaga has won it so many years. It’s good for us to be able to really do it.”
The women not only secured the regular season title, but also earned the WCC Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed. Their run starts Monday, March 7.
“We’re favored to win the tournament,” Judkins said. “We’re going to go out there with a lot of confidence and know that we can do that.”
The men, meanwhile, beat Pepperdine 75-59 and unofficially gave them the No. 5 seed in the tournament. That means they’ll play Friday, March 4 to start their WCC Tournament run.
Freshman Fousseyni Traore had a career game, scoring 25 points, grabbing 19 rebounds and blocking two shots.
In a tribute, coach Mark Pope subbed in seniors Gavin Baxter and Richard Harward for one possession. The two suffered season-ending injuries and had not played at all. Baxter tore his ACL earlier in the season, and Harward took a “step back” from basketball due to a heart issue.
This story will be updated.
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/G5teOhc
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