BYU missed 49 shots Tuesday night. It missed 29 of 38 attempts from beyond the arc. Idaho State led for almost 15 minutes, and the Cougars did not move ahead for good until the third quarter.
BYU still won by 17.
The Cougars beat Idaho State 67-50 in the Marriott Center because a bad shooting possession rarely stayed dead. They collected 23 offensive rebounds, forced 20 turnovers and scored 28 points from those mistakes. Delaney Gibb led the scoring with 17 points, but this opener belonged to the players who kept recovering the ball after the first plan failed.
That is a useful win for a young team. It is also a warning. BYU cannot expect 74 shots every night, and 23.7 percent from three will eventually cost more than hard work can replace.
Idaho State made the first half uncomfortable
The Bengals started with two returners and three newcomers, then played like the more settled team. Maggie Hutka scored nine points in the first quarter, Idaho State made seven of 14 shots and BYU went 1 for 11 from three. The Bengals closed the period on a 6-0 run for a 16-11 lead.
The second quarter was ugly in a different way. Idaho State made one field goal. BYU made five. Neither offense found a clean rhythm, and the Cougars went scoreless from outside on seven attempts.
Mariam Traore changed the texture of that quarter. She scored six points during an 8-0 BYU run, finishing inside while the perimeter shots kept missing. Idaho State answered and took a 22-19 lead, but BYU squeezed out the final six Cougar points of the half to lead 25-24.
The score captured the problem. BYU had taken 38 shots to Idaho State’s 26 and had grabbed 13 offensive rebounds. All that extra work had produced a one-point edge because the Cougars were shooting 26.3 percent overall and 1 for 18 from three.
The pregame watch guide centered the possession battle after Idaho State dominated the glass in last season’s meeting. BYU answered that question before it answered the shooting question. The Cougars could not buy a jumper, but they were not giving the Bengals clean exits either.
Three turnovers opened the game
Idaho State took its last lead, 31-30, on an Aspen Caldwell free throw with 6:02 left in the third quarter.
Then BYU stopped asking its half-court offense to solve everything.
The Cougars forced turnovers on three consecutive Bengal possessions. Sydney Benally made 3-pointers after the first two. Kambree Taylor made another after the third. A one-point deficit became a 39-31 lead without Idaho State attempting a shot.
That nine-point burst was the game. Idaho State had survived BYU’s work on the offensive glass because the Cougars kept missing. It could not survive empty possessions followed by open transition shots.
BYU forced eight turnovers in the third quarter and scored 14 points from them. The Cougars made five of 10 3-pointers in the period after making one of 18 before halftime. Gibb’s spinning jumper at the horn sent BYU to the fourth quarter ahead 48-37.
The shooting improvement mattered. The order mattered more. Benally and Taylor were not creating those shots from a stalled possession. BYU’s defense had already broken Idaho State’s shape. The passes went to shooters with their feet set and no second defender waiting.
That is a repeatable route to better offense. Making half of the third-quarter 3-pointers probably is not. Creating a live-ball turnover, pushing before the defense gets organized and finding the open player can travel to the next game.
BYU won the possession count by a mile
The box score looks strange until the extra possessions are counted.
| Possession stat | BYU | Idaho State |
|---|---|---|
| Field-goal attempts | 74 | 46 |
| Offensive rebounds | 23 | 7 |
| Turnovers | 13 | 20 |
| Steals | 12 | 6 |
| Points off turnovers | 28 | 10 |
| Second-chance points | 13 | 5 |
| Points in the paint | 30 | 14 |
BYU attempted 28 more field goals than Idaho State. That gap is enormous. It allowed the Cougars to score 67 while shooting 33.8 percent overall and 23.7 percent from three.
The offensive rebound total did not turn into an equally dramatic 23-7 second-chance scoring edge. BYU led that category 13-5. Some recovered misses led to another miss, a reset or a foul rather than a basket. The value was still real. Every rebound denied Idaho State a chance to run and forced the Bengals to defend another action.
The turnover margin was cleaner. BYU scored 28 points from Idaho State’s 20 giveaways. Idaho State scored 10 from BYU’s 13. That 18-point difference was larger than the final 17-point margin.
The opener did not prove that BYU can shoot through a set defense. It proved the Cougars can make a set defense disappear by winning the ball first.
Traore gave BYU the interior game it needed
Gibb’s 17 points led BYU, and her four 3-pointers were the only reason the team finished with nine. She also had seven rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block. Her final 3-pointer capped a 7-0 closing run after Idaho State had cut the lead to 10.
Traore supplied the less obvious answer. She scored eight points on 4-of-6 shooting, grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and collected five of them on the offensive end in 17:36. She added two steals and two blocks without committing a turnover.
BYU’s perimeter starters shot 11 for 48. Traore gave the offense a place to go that did not require another jumper. Her six-point second-quarter burst kept the Cougars attached when the outside shot had vanished, and her work around the rim helped BYU win paint scoring 30-14.
Bolanle Yussuf played the same role in a quieter line. She made all three field-goal attempts, scored seven points and grabbed six rebounds in 15:34. Yussuf and Traore combined for 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting. The rest of BYU went 18 for 65.
That contrast should shape the next adjustment. The Cougars have skilled guards and willing shooters, but 38 3-point attempts were too many for a night when the defense was handing them repeated chances near the rim. Extra possessions are more valuable when they lead to a different shot rather than the same miss.
Cannon and Benally affected the game without leading the scoring
Brinley Cannon missed all six of her shots and scored two points. Her game was still important.
Cannon led BYU with five assists and three steals. She grabbed seven rebounds, including three offensive boards, and committed one turnover in nearly 26 minutes. On a night when the ball had to keep moving after the first miss, she did not let her shooting line stop her from doing the next job.
Benally gave BYU the third-quarter release. She scored eight points on 3-of-5 shooting, made two of four from deep and added two assists and two steals off the bench. Her consecutive 3-pointers turned Idaho State’s final lead into a Cougar advantage the Bengals never erased.
Taylor added five points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals in 13 minutes. BYU’s bench outscored Idaho State’s 25-17. More important, the reserve guards kept the pressure and passing alive when the starters rotated out.
That depth matters because the starting backcourt did not have a clean scoring night. Olivia Hamlin scored nine on 4-of-14 shooting. Kailey Woolston scored seven on 2 of 14. Gibb needed 14 shots for 17. BYU found enough production anyway because Benally, Traore and Taylor entered with specific jobs and finished them.
The rebounding reversal was real
Idaho State outrebounded BYU 43-23 in last season’s meeting and grabbed 22 offensive rebounds. That history made the glass the obvious test in the opener.
BYU flipped it completely: 51-34 overall and 23-7 on the offensive glass.
The roster turnover on both teams means this was not a direct rematch of personnel. The tactical correction still counts. BYU sent multiple players to the glass without surrendering control of transition. Seven Cougars grabbed at least four rebounds. Gibb and Cannon each had seven, Woolston and Yussuf had six, Astakhova had five, and Taylor had four behind Traore’s eight.
Idaho State’s best interior answer was Hutka, who finished with 12 points, eight rebounds, two steals and two blocks. Clare Valentine added 11 points and six rebounds in her first collegiate start. The Bengals shot 38.9 percent from three, better than BYU, but they did not have enough possessions to turn that advantage into a threat after halftime.
The current BYU roster is young. Rebounding by committee is one way for that youth to hold up before every offensive role settles. It requires effort from guards, not just size from posts. Cannon’s seven and Gibb’s seven mattered as much as any frontcourt total.
What the opener proved, and what it did not
BYU can win a game when its primary offense fails. That is the strongest receipt from Tuesday.
The Cougars went 1 for 18 from three in the first half and led. They shot 33.8 percent for the night and won by 17. They forced 20 turnovers, grabbed 23 offensive rebounds and finished the game on a 7-0 run after Idaho State made one last push.
The concern is just as plain. A team cannot build its offense around recovering nearly one-third of its missed shots. Better opponents will protect the ball, rebound with more size and punish guards who crash without floor balance. BYU needs better shot selection and more dependable half-court creation before the schedule hardens.
Gibb remains the center of that work. Her 17 points were enough Tuesday because she had help everywhere else. Traore owned the interior minutes. Benally supplied the separation. Cannon connected possessions. The defense created the open floor that the half-court attack could not.
BYU hosts Portland on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m. Mountain on ESPN+. The permanent women’s basketball schedule has the next event details.
The quickest improvement is not asking the Cougars to stop attacking the glass or pressuring the ball. It is making the first shot worthy of all the work that follows it.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics: completed event 25332 for the stable event ID, completed status, 67-50 final, date and Marriott Center venue.
- BYU Athletics: official 67-50 recap for the game sequence, second-half turnover pressure and Portland follow-up.
- BYU Athletics and WMT: official box score for the period splits, player lines, team shooting, rebounds, turnovers, paint scoring and attendance.
- Official StatBroadcast final for independent live-system confirmation of the final, team comparison and final scoring run.
- Idaho State Athletics: opponent recap for independent confirmation of Idaho State’s final totals, 14:53 lead time, last lead and player lines.
- BYU Sport Nuts: Idaho State watch guide, women’s basketball preseason poll analysis, schedule and roster.
- BYU brand colors and Idaho State brand colors for the verified palettes used in the original matchup art.
