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BYU's Arielle Mackey-Williams sprints down the floor during summer workouts at the Marriott Center Annex in June of 2025.

Lizzy Hall, BYU Photo

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BYU's Arielle Mackey-Williams (5) drives against Gonzaga in a West Coast Conference Tournament semifinal game at Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on Monday, March 6, 2023.

Courtesy BYU Photo

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BYU's Arielle Mackey-Williams dribbles against a practice player during summer workouts at the Marriott Center Annex in June of 2025.

Lizzy Hall, BYU Photo

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BYU’s Arielle Mackey-Williams now looks at her experiences the past two years in a positive light.

“I came out of it with two bionic knees,” Mackey-Williams said. “I’m basically a superwoman at this point.”

She didn’t always lean towards optimism, because in the past two years she suffered season-ending injuries to first her right, then her left knee.

The Cougars are just beginning summer workouts and Mackey-Williams is back in action, a critical piece to first-time head coach Lee Cummard’s BYU team. A tough-minded guard from New Zealand, Mackey-Williams (her teammates call her “Ari”) started 24 games in 2022-23, improving her scoring average from 2.2 points per game as a freshman to 8.8 as a sophomore. She shot 36% from the 3-point line and is well-remembered by BYU women’s basketball fans for a clutch 3-pointer against San Francisco to secure a West Coast Conference quarterfinals victory in 2023.

Mackey-Williams was also getting international experience, playing 3×3 basketball for her native country in the Women’s Series and U23 World Cup. But the knee injuries took her off the court and into rehab for most of 2023-24 and 2024-25.

“My first time around, with the first injury, I had a mentally positive attitude and was ready to hit the ground running in attack my timelines,” Mackey-Williams said. “But having the injuries back-to-back was really hard for me. I knew how much work it was going to take to go through it again. My dad had open heart surgery a week after I injured my ACL the second time around. So many things were going wrong. Honestly, I was really angry with Heavenly Father. Why do I have to go through this? What is he trying to teach me? My faith, I could just cling to it or let it go.”

Mackey-Williams said she’s learned a lot from the experience, both on and off the court.

“I’ve grown and matured in a lot of ways,” she said. “Even though it’s been hard, I remind myself that I could be a lot worse. I’m in a nice position. The surgeries were paid for (through the school’s insurance policy) and I’m getting a master’s degree paid for.”

Mackey-Williams is majoring in biology with an emphasis in health communications.

“Coming in as a freshman, I was training and in practice and really locked into basketball,” she said. “I really didn’t take time to enjoy the whole college experience. While I was out, I was making friends outside of my teammates. I mean, my teammates are my sisters, but I discovered I could have friends outside of my basketball world. At BYU, academics are really hard and it’s so important to get my education. It’s amazing what plans God has in store.”

Mackey-Williams’ experience and toughness will invaluable this season with Cummard’s first roster.

“We’re relatively young in regards to college experience and games played,” Cummard said. “To have Ari, Heather (Hamson) and Lara (Rohkohl, a transfer from College of Charleston), along with Marya (Hudgins) and Hattie (Ogden) in that next tier, that’s going to be really good for some of our new faces. It’s important for them (the experienced players) to take an added interest in them. You’ve got weight training, basketball, school, study hall and extra work on your own. Then you get to do it all again tomorrow and the next day. So it’s crucial for the older kids to help them and it builds those upperclassmen as well. You learn the most when you teach.”

Rohkohl, a 6-foot-3 post player, is new, along with freshmen Sydney Benally (New Mexico’s Gatorade Player of the Year), four-time Montana All-Stater Braeden Gunlock, two-time Utah 4A Player of the Year Olivia Hamlin, 6-3 Mariam Traore (younger sister of former Cougar Fousseyni Traore) and 6-3 Bolanle Yussuf (from Nigeria by way of Japan).

“First of all, they’re great people,” Cummard said of his newcomers. “We’ve been really diligent finding the right people to bring into the program. We have players with different experiences coming together with unique skill sets, different things they’re good at. I love watching the upperclassmen and our returners wrapping their arms around the new players and helping them to transition.”

Cummard will also rely on returning Big 12 Freshman of the Year Delaney Gibb (17.4 ppg) and energetic sophomores Kambree Barber and Brinley Cannon to bring the younger players along.

“I’ve known Lee since my recruitment,” Mackey-Williams said. “He definitely deserves this job. He’s done his time and been very loyal to BYU. I’ve never met anyone who bleeds blue so much. He’s doing a good job of finding the balance of being laid back and serious as the head coach. He’s going to push us, even if we don’t like it. He wants us to be the best version of ourselves, and not just at basketball.

“Our expectations are that we will be very competitive. We want to play at a fast pace and upbeat tempo. We want to shoot a lot of threes but we want to make a lot of selfless plays, giving up the ball with the extra pass. That’s one of our biggest things. We’re playing for each other. We’re definitely going to surprise a few teams once we get the right combinations.”

Kiwki Comeback

BYU’s Arielle Mackey-Williams

5-9 RS-Jr. G from Ngati Porou, New Zealand

– Missed the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons due to knee injuries

– Started 24 games during her career

– Increased scoring average from 2.2 points per game as a freshman to 8.8 as a sophomore

– Scored a career-high 18 points on 6 of 11 shooting against Colorado State in 2022

– Played for New Zealand’s 3×3 team against international competition