Fortunately, for the BYU Cougars, they overcame their first half difficulties to take charge in the second half and come away with a 76-66 win on Wednesday.

“It was a Big 12 game and it was really physical,” described BYU coach Lee Cummard in his opening statements to the media after. “In the first half (Houston) did a good job of speeding us up and in the second half I felt we did a good job of just settling in and…initiating offense when we wanted to.”

BYU outscored Houston 47-37 as the offense flowed, which was a stark contrast to a first half which saw Cummard’s team score just 29 points, which was matched by Houston as the teams went in tied at the break. BYU committed 15 turnovers over the game’s first 20 minutes of play, which severely hampered scoring opportunities and cut down much of any positive flow to be had.

“They turned us over,” Cummard said. “But then we turned it over just seven times in the second half, which was huge for us. You can always tell the connection between a coach and his players by how hard they play … and Houston plays hard for each other.”

BYU’s second half was set off by Brinley Canon, whose first field goal attempt of the day came on a corner 3-point attempt shortly after the break in helping set a different tone. From there BYU slowly, but surely built its lead and ended the third quarter up 56-44.

Houston came storming back, however, and cut the lead to as many as three points late before Sydney Benally came through with a clutch 3-pointer to push the lead back to six points and separate from there.

“That was a big momentum switch,” Canon said. “We were kind of in a little rut and they went on a run. It was going down to the wire, but when she hit that, it kind of settled us (down) … to finish out the rest of the game.”

As Cummard shared, Benally’s 3-pointer came just after BYU star guard was forced to the bench with her fourth foul, which could have proven difficult to overcome.

“She shot that thing with great confidence, and I’m glad she did,” Cummard said. “You could tell the confidence in the players at that moment. It was huge for them.”

For Benally, she finished with 14 points scored, with Gibb and Lara Rohkohl both scoring 15 and Olivia Hamlin leading all BYU scorers with 16.

“I think we just continued to stay composed and not let them speed us up,” Benally said of BYU’s superior second half play. “We stuck to our gameplan and ran our offense. And then we just trusted each other.”

With the win BYU moves to face rival Utah in the second round, which adds a unique element Cummard and his players are excited for.

“We like playing our rival,” Cummard said. “It’s a good thing for college basketball and it’s a great thing for our state … I’m looking forward to it tomorrow and it’s just a good thing for everyone involved. The rivalry went away for a while, but it’s just good to play in-state teams … These games always tend to be close.”

Cummard admitted to noting with great anticipation that his team would meet up with Utah should it get by Houston, although Houston was certainly at the forefront of everyone’s thought process.

“I didn’t want anyone looking past Houston at all,” he said. “We wanted to stay in the moment with Houston, and I think (the players) did a great job of that, knowing that if we were successful that we’d get our rival in the tournament … It should be a great game tomorrow.”

BYU will tip-off versus Utah at 12:30 MST with the game streamed live on ESPN+.