Courtesy BYU Photo

BYU’s Lauren Davenport was white hot from the field.

Utah Valley was … not.

Davenport scored a career-high 20 points on 6 of 8 from the 3-point line in the Cougars’ 76-36 victory against the Wolverines on Tuesday at the Marriott Center, BYU’s 12th win without a loss against their neighbors from Orem.

“We have a thing that we always say,” Cougar coach Amber Whiting said. “‘Sometimes you, sometimes me, but always us.’ Last game, it was Emma’s turn (Emma Calvert scored 27 points in a win at UTEP). Tonight was Dav’s turn. I was just super happy that she was hot when she was because it came at a perfect time. And I was also super proud of how we held them to 10 points the second half.”

Davenport was 7 of 11 from the field and added five rebounds to her 20-point total in her third start of the season.

Courtesy BYU Photo

“I felt very calm tonight, and I think I just let the game come to me,” Davenport said. “So I thought that was super important for my game. I appreciate my teammates for getting me the ball and finding me open.”

Freshman Delany Gibb had 14 points and four assists for the Cougars and Amari Whiting stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, 10 rebounds, five assists and four steals. BYU finished 50% (30 of 60) from the field and 11 of 24 (46%) from the 3-point line.

Kylee Mabry led Utah Valley with nine points but the poor shooting (12 of 48, 25%) and 21 turnovers were difficult to overcome.

UVU hung around for a while in this one, trailing by five after one quarter and ten at the half. But an absolute nightmare stretch of shooting in the second half was its undoing: The Wolverines went nearly 12 minutes of game time without a field goal, suffering through a frigid 1-for-22 stretch while the Cougars kept increasing their lead.

“I talked about pressure when we were inside the locker room (at halftime) because they were 4 for 9 from three, and that’s unacceptable,” BYU coach Amber Whiting said. “We can’t let them just look at the basket and shoot it, so we just talked about pressure and making sure that we’re the most physical team. I thought the second half they did a way better job.”

Courtesy BYU Photo

The two teams played a sloppy first half with 23 combined turnovers, 13 by Utah Valley. While BYU likes a fast pace, the Wolverines trapping defense sped the home team up too much and struggled to find consistency on the offensive end.

Kemery Congdon made a 3-pointer and a layup to get the Cougars off to a 9-4 lead but Utah Valley stuck around, getting triples from Cambree Blackham and Mabry to close to 14-12. Davenport nailed a 30-foot 3-pointer to beat the buzzer and BYU led 17-12 after one quarter.

Kambree Barber dropped in a corner 3 to push the Cougars to a 26-19 lead at the 4:01 mark of the second quarter but Amanda Barcello answered with her own triple to close the gap to 26-22.

The Cougars scored seven straight points, including an offensive rebound by Barber she fed to Gibb for a basket, and BYU got out to a 33-22 lead, its largest of the half, with 1:15 to play. The Cougars took a 36-26 advantage at halftime.

When BYU did manage to solve UVU’s trap, it connected on 6 of 14 (43%) from the 3-point line, including a 3 for 5 performance from Davenport.

BYU outscored the Wolverines 19-5 in the third quarter, holding UVU to just 1 of 14 (7 percent) from the field. The Cougars opened with a quick 7-0 run for a 43-26 lead. Whiting hit a layup, Gibb turned a steal into a dime to Emma Calvert running the floor for a layup and Davenport drained another triple as BYU took control of the game. BYU finished the quarter on a 10-2 run, with five points from Gibb and yet another Davenport triple, for a 55-33 lead entering the fourth quarter.

The Cougars led 66-31 with about four minutes left as Amber Whiting cleared her bench. The home team outscored UVU 40-10 in the second half to cruise to the 40-point win.

“It starts with her (Coach Whiting) yelling at us in practice about defense,” Davenport said. “She harps on us, ‘If your defense isn’t good, I’m taking you out.’ All of us work together really well, whether we’re just doubling off the ball and then helping. We just played really good defense.”

BYU honored Calvert and Congdon before the game. Calvert reached 100 career blocks, only the seventh Cougar to do so, and Congdon earned her accolades by scoring 1,000 career points.

BYU (8-2) closes out its preseason schedule on Friday at Washington State, while UVU (6-4) hosts Jacksonville State on Monday.