The first week of West Coast Conference play was postponed due to COVID health and safety issues throughout the league.

Not missing a beat, the Cougars got out to a large lead and topped San Francisco 76-64 to open WCC play at War Memorial Gym.

Paisley Harding paced BYU (11-1) with 19 points and Lauren Gustin added 16 points and 14 rebounds as BYU had a big second quarter to get out to a big lead it would never relinquish. The Cougars also had a huge lead in rebounding (50-28) which led to a 46-22 advantage scoring in the paint.

BYU led 16-12 after one quarter but took over in the second, outscoring the home team 23-10. The Cougars took off on a 10-0 run when Gustin hit a baseline jump shot at the 3:18 mark, for a 33-19 advantage. As the clock wound down before halftime, Harding worked her way inside for a basket and BYU held a 39-22 lead at the break.

Gustin finished with 10 points and nine rebounds in the first half and Harding added nine points.

Jasmine Gayles led the Dons (0-1, 6-7) with 22 points.

San Francisco played the game without the WCC’s second-leading scorer, Ioanna Krimili (17.4 points per game).

Saturday, BYU will host Pacific in the Marriott Center at 2 p.m. MT, with the game televised on BYUtv.

Men’s volleyball swept at No. 5 Penn State

It was a tough start for the BYU men’s volleyball team.

The No. 6 Cougars were swept 3-0 (25-14, 25-18, 25-19) by fifth-ranked Penn State on Thursday at Rec Hall in University Park, Pa., to open the season.

The Nittany Lions broke a streak of 10 straight losses to BYU, dating back to 2007.

Davide Gardini led the Cougars (0-1) with nine kills and newcomer Kepono Browne added seven. BYU hit just .130 for the match with 18 attack errors. The Cougars also struggled in serve receive with nine errors.

Penn State finished with a hitting percentage of .365, outblocked BYU 15.0 to 6.0 and had nine aces. Toby Ezeonu led the Nittany Lions with 10 kills – hitting .467 – and Brett Wildman added nine.

Penn State (1-0) hit .500 and ran away with an easy victory. The Cougars played the home team evenly in the second set but the Nittany Lions went on an 8-2 run late for a 2-0 lead in the match.

BYU hit .286 in the third set but had trouble with serve receive as Penn State picked up four aces.

The two teams will meet again at Rec Hall on Saturday at 5 p.m. MT. The game can be streamed on a pay service, BTN+.