Low point: BYU women’s hoops suffers bad home loss to Cincinnati
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- BYU’s Delaney Gibb (left) drives to the basket against Cincinnati in a Big 12 women’s basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026.
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- BYU’s Olivia Hamlin, right, goes in for a layup against Cincinnati in a Big 12 women’s basketball game at the Marriott Center on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026.
There are bad losses, and then there at BAD losses.
The BYU women’s basketball team lost at Colorado 76-46 on Saturday. A bad loss, sure, but to a good team: The Buffs are 18-8 overall and 9-5 in the Big 12.
On Tuesday, the Cougars hoped to get well at home against a struggling Cincinnati team, just 9-17 overall and 4-10 in league play after going 1-4 in its past five games.
Maya Perry scored a career high 32 points and the Bearcats pulled away with a 13-2 finish to the fourth quarter in a 76-67 victory at the Marriott Center. Cincinnati was 1-9 on the road coming into the game.
That’s a BAD loss.
For a team trying to hold onto any slim hopes at post-season opportunities, well, that makes it even worse.
“There’s a clear recipe out there against us right now,” BYU head coach Lee Cummard said. “Drive us, rebound against us and try to speed us up and force some turnovers. That’s what happened today. The rebounding was No. 1 in our game plan and to give up 20 offensive rebounds, we’ve just got to own it.”
Delaney Gibb, who scored 15 of her team-leading 20 points in the second half, knocked down a 3-pointer with 4:05 to play for a 65-62 BYU lead. But the Cougars followed up that shot with four critical empty possessions: An air ball, a turnover (the 18th of the game), a miss under the basket and miss on a wide-open 3. Cincinnati, meanwhile got a pair of triples from Perry, her second 3-pointer giving the Bearcats a 73-67 advantage with under a minute left and that lead would hold up.
“Credit to Cincinnati, they made some big plays down the stretch,” BYU head coach Lee Cummard said. “We’ve got to learn from it (the loss) and grow. That (Perry’s 3-pointers) is a play we’ve guarded 100 times already this year from other teams. Then we went under (the screen) again and she got another one off against us.”
Two big areas of concern for the Cougars all season were concerns at home, as well. BYU committed 19 turnovers that led to 19 points off turnovers for Cincinnati. The Cougars were also beaten by the more physical visitors on the boards 40-33, including surrendering 20 offensive boards.
They (Cincinnati) did a good job of making it a game in their style,” Cummard said. “Usually when a team dictates style of play they are on the successful end. They did more of that than we did tonight.”
The two teams battled to 11 ties and 13 lead changes. Cincinnati was hot early, making 10 of its first 14 shots, to get out to a 26-15 lead. But BYU closed the first quarter on a 10-3 burst and trailed 29-25 entering the second. The Bearcats took a 40-36 lead into the break and held the Cougars without a field goal for eight minutes in the third quarter. But BYU made 10 of 14 from the free throw line to knot things up at 51-all going into the fourth.
Cincinnati led 58-53 but Olivia Hamlin made a 3-pointer and Gibb scored eight straight points for the three point lead. The Cougars dried up offensively and had to watch the Bearcats celebrate just their second road win of the season.
Reagan Jackson had 10 of her 15 points in the first quarter for Cincinnati (10-17 overall, 5-10 Big 12), which also got 11 points from Kylie Torrence. But it was Perry who time and time again shook herself loose from BYU’s defense.
“I think she’s one of the best offensive guards in the country,” Cincinnati coach Katrina Merriweather said. “Her repertoire and the things she has in her artillery are big time. She’s the focal point of everybody’s defense when we play and people believe if they can shut her down, they can beat us. She doesn’t get a night off. So when she shows up and shots go in, I get really excited for her, especially when we’re able to win.”
Hamlin had 16 for BYU and Brinley Cannon added 12.
“We’re trying to clean up some of the easy things that happen all the time in games,” Cummard said. “Rebounding, keeping people out of the paint, just trying to build off of who we are foundationally. We did a decent job turning them over (14) and they had to adjust to that. We’re trying to build on some of the basics of the game: Delivering passes on time and on target, executing plays, what the proper spacing and timing is on it.
“As a younger team, we’re just trying to teach as we go, which we were little bit more successful (earlier) than we’ve been as of late. So I told them, ‘Let’s grow from this.'”
BYU (17-10, 6-9), which has lost four of its past five games, travels up I-15 to play rival Utah at the Huntsman Center on Saturday at 2 p.m. MT. When the two teams met in Provo three weeks ago, the Cougars came away with a 77-65 victory.
