Surging ahead: Defensive effort fuels BYU’s thrilling 77-65 win over Utah
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- BYU’s Olivia Hamlin lays it up ahead of Utah’s defense during Saturday’s big 77-65 win on Saturday. January 31, 2026
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- BYU’s Bolanle Yussuf drives through traffic during her team’s 77-65 win over Utah on Saturday. January 31, 2026
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- BYU’s Delaney Gibb drives through the lane to score two of her eight points during a 77-65 win over Utah at the Marriott Center on Saturday. January 31, 2026
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- BYU’s Sydney Benally drives the lane during the Cougar’s 77-65 win over Utah on Saturday. January 31, 2026
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- BYU’s Marya Hudgins applies the type of defensive pressure that changed the game for the Cougars during a 77-65 win over Utah on Saturday. January 31, 2026
Prior to the BYU women’s basketball team’s matchup versus rival Utah, Cougar coach Lee Cummard wanted to his players to understand that although every game is important, any game versus the Utes just means more.
And if the Cougar’s gutty comeback effort in securing a 77-65 win over Utah at the Marriott Center on Saturday, those same players took Cummard’s message to heart.
Down 35-25 at the half, the Cougars slowly chipped away at the lead throughout the third quarter, before finally forging ahead on the scoreboard at the outset of the fourth and then never looked back. It was a gritty effort full of palpable emotion, physical play, and most of all, phenomenal effort down the stretch from just about everyone on BYU’s roster.
“Tremendous game that was just fun to be a part of,” Cummard remarked in his opening comments to the media. “I’ve been a part of many of these, and it felt just like all of them, you know, it’s back and forth. There’s emotion, there’s energy that’s different than than other games.”
Cummard played several times against the Utes during his four-year stint as a player for the men’s team from 2005-2009, which included some doozies to be certain. As for Saturday’s win, it could well be categorized as one of the better efforts the Cougar women’s team has had versus the Utes in recent years.
Leading the way for the Cougars was sophomore Brinley Cannon, who scored a game-high 21 points, and while she was good throughout, she was especially so during the first minute of the final quarter.
Having helped cut Utah’s lead to just 52-48 entering the game’s final ten minutes, Cannon immediately went to work. the sophomore hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to just one point just a few seconds into the final perod, and on the very next possession she splashed through another to give the Cougars their first lead since early in the first quarter.
“I think when we came out after halftime and we made some big defensive plays and kind of got our momentum going, and then we hit a couple big threes after that,” Cannon said. “I think that’s kind of when the switch flipped and we kind of knew we’re in this we’re going to win this game.”
Ah yes, the defense.
Defense is often all about effort, and although Cummard astutely made some key defensive adjustments, BYU’s overall effort was just flat out better on the defensive end. Balls were knocked away, Ute players were defended more tightly and rebounds were better secured in order to fuel the offensive production.
“There was a slight adjustment,” Cummard explained. “They were killing us in the first half with just an empty ball screen on the outer third, and we were kind of in between and protect and kind of more of a aggressive. And we decided, hey, we need to be more aggressive in that we’re getting killed on it, and it kind of got us going a little bit more in the second half.”
Everyone contributed on the defensive end, and it was very much the same on the offensive end. Although she only scored eight points, Delaney Gibb was central to a lot of it, passing out a team-high seven assists while Marya Hudgins added 14 points.
Two of the biggest plays during BYU’s fourth quarter surge was made by Lara Rohkohl and Braden Gunlock, both of whom battled to secure offensive rebounds and then score. The two efforts both came with under three minutes remaining, with Rohkohl’s pushing the lead back to 68-63 and Gunlock’s to 70-65 a few possessions later.
“I think it all just comes down to effort, like your willingness to go get the ball,” Gunlock said. “For me, that’s just, I love to compete, and that’s my way of showing that I’m competitive.”
All of it was done before a Marriott Center crowd that was perhaps more into it than in other games because, hey it’s Utah, and as Cummard mentioned, the rivalry game just means more. Fortunately, for all involved, the players, many of whom are freshmen and sophomores and come from out-of-state, the game proved at least as meaningful.
“It does feel different,” said Cannon, who is just a sophomore from Shelley, Idaho. “It’s weird, because it’s not like I grew up with this, but now that I’m here, I don’t know, it just feels different and it’s just more competitive. You can even feel it coming out of the game with them, like they brought kind of that intensity and that fight, and it…just feels bigger.”
With the win BYU improves to 16-6 on the season and 5-5 in Big 12 Conference play. Next up for the Cougars will games at Kansas and Kansas State before returning home to take on Iowa State.
