1 / 5

The BYU women's basketball team celebrates a win against Utah in the Big 12 Women's Tournament at T-Mobile Arena in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday, March 5, 2026.

Courtesy BYU Photo

2 / 5

BYU's Laura Rohkohl celebrates a victory against Utah in the Big 12 Women's Basketball Tournament at T-Mobile Arena in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday, March 5, 2026.

Courtesy BYU Photo

3 / 5

BYU's Delaney Gibb celebrates a win against Utah in the Big 12 Women's Basketball Tournament at T-Mobile Arena in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday, March 5, 2026.

Courtesy BYU Photo

4 / 5

BYU's Olivia Hamlin goes up for a shot against Utah in the Big 12 Women's Basketball Tournament at T-Mobile Arena in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday, March 5, 2026.

Courtesy BYU Photo

5 / 5

BYU's Delaney Gibb goes up for a shot against Utah in the Big 12 Women's Basketball Tournament at T-Mobile Arena in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday, March 5, 2026.

Courtesy BYU Photo

❮ ❯

The BYU women’s basketball team picked a very fine time to rise and play its best basketball of the season.

And it’s all led to five straight wins, including two straight in the Big 12 Conference tournament, along with a 3-game sweep over rival Utah for the season.

All of that came to fruition on Thursday in BYU’s 70-52 win over the Utes in the second round of Big 12 tournament play in Kansas City.

“I feel like all the pieces of the puzzle are coming together right now for us,” said BYU sophomore guard Delaney Gibb, who has made a habit of playing at her best against the Utes this season. “We’ve talked all season about being a team that plays together and for each other, and I think that’s been shown so well over these past five games.”

As for Gibb, she was tremendous throughout, but particularly during the second half of play. Sure, the 5-foot-10 guard from Alberta has scored much more than the 19 points she put up on Thursday, but with regards to complete contributions across the board, she perhaps has never been better.

Gibb impacted every facet on the game, from providing key perimeter defense, which led to her recording four steals, to distributing the ball effectively on offense in passing out eight assists. Most of her standout play came during her team’s late third-quarter surge and throughout the third quarter, as BYU hit its stride, took a double-digit lead midway through the third quarter, and then never looked back.

“It was tangibly different in the second half, and I’m just grateful for this group and how connected they are,” said BYU coach Lee Cummard. “They want to do it for each other and for the name on the front of their jersey.”

After jumping out to a 22-17 lead after one quarter, things bogged down considerably for the Cougars in a second quarter that saw Utah outscore them 19-5. That deficit slowly increased throughout the third quarter before a 15-0 run set forth by BYU late provided a 51-43 Cougar lead entering the game’s final 10 minutes. The run was topped off by Olivia Hamlin banking in a 3-pointer at the buzzer that certainly added to the already strong momentum for the Cougars.

All of it came as a result of Cummard simply telling his team to stay within themselves and focus on what the players could control.

“What I challenged them to do is to do what we do,” Cummard related. ” … Our good is good enough and I thought in the second half we stayed right in that framework.”

The Cougars rolled from there, and were rarely challenged throughout the fourth quarter in coming away with the big 18-point win.

Also playing big for BYU was Lara Rohkohl, who contributed 12 points and eight rebounds before fouling out late.

“I thought like I started a little slow, but … I feel like we just played together as a team and we moved the ball,” Rohkohl said. “When I get the ball (down low), that’s how I score. So us coming together, as a team, got me going.”

Another big contribution came from from seldom-used guard Arielle Mackey-Williams, who Cummard specifically pointed out during his postgame press conference.

“She was very instrumental to our run in the second half,” Cummard said. “She came in and gave us some poise and composure. She’s been at this level for a long time and she hit a big 3(-pointer.)”

With the win BYU moves on to take on No. 1 seed TCU in the quarterfinal round of the Big 12 Tournament on Friday.