Portland led BYU by six at halftime Thursday night. The Cougars had missed 22 of 32 shots, made two 3-pointers in 18 attempts and committed 12 turnovers. The possession test from the pregame guide was going Portland’s way.
Ten minutes later, BYU led by 17.
The Cougars scored 33 points in the third quarter, held Portland to 10 and won 74-64 at the Marriott Center. Freshman Prasayus Notoa filled the box score with 13 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks. Olivia Hamlin led BYU with 15 points, while Sydney Benally and Notoa added 13 apiece.
One hot quarter decided the game, but it did not erase the rough parts around it. BYU finished 7 of 32 from three and turned the ball over 17 times. The Cougars won because they turned a massive rebounding advantage into enough extra chances for the third-quarter lineup to break through.
Portland controlled the first half without shooting well
Neither team scored for the first two and a half minutes. BYU started 0 for 2 from deep, Portland started 1 for 5 from the field, and the opening quarter settled into the kind of game where every clean possession felt expensive.
Portland’s freshmen changed it. Sara Mangan and Pahlyss Hokianga came off the bench and made the Pilots’ first-half pressure count. Mangan hit three 3-pointers before halftime. Hokianga reached the line and added nine points of her own. Portland led 14-11 after one quarter, then opened the second on a 6-0 run.
BYU did answer. Stella Sakalas and Notoa made consecutive threes, and Benally, Notoa and Delaney Gibb scored during a 7-0 push that cut Portland’s lead to two. The Pilots responded with seven straight points and carried a 34-28 advantage into halftime.
The score was not the strange part. The numbers underneath it were.
BYU had already grabbed nine offensive rebounds and taken 32 shots, five more than Portland. The Cougars had also committed 12 turnovers and shot 31.3 percent. They were working hard to create extra possessions, then wasting too many of them before a good shot arrived.
Portland was not running away with the game. The Pilots shot 28.1 percent in the first half. Their advantage came from making BYU restart possessions, turning live-ball mistakes into movement and trusting Mangan and Hokianga to finish what the pressure created.
The third quarter started with the right five actions
Kailey Woolston opened the second half with a 3-pointer. Hamlin stole the ball on Portland’s next possession and scored in transition. Notoa finished a pick-and-roll. Brinley Cannon hit from deep. Notoa stole the ball and scored again.
BYU had turned a 34-28 deficit into a 42-35 lead before Portland could settle.
That 14-1 opening run was not a random collection of makes. Each basket made the next one easier. Woolston’s three forced Portland to respect a shooter who had started 0 for 4. Hamlin’s steal removed the half-court defense. Notoa’s roll gave BYU a direct route to the rim. Cannon punished the space that opened when Portland tried to protect it.
The Cougars kept going. Back-to-back threes from Cannon and Benally pushed the lead to 56-44. BYU closed the quarter on a 13-0 run and led 61-44.
Here is the full swing:
| Quarter | BYU | Portland | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | 11 | 14 | Portland +3 |
| Second | 17 | 20 | Portland +3 |
| Third | 33 | 10 | BYU +23 |
| Fourth | 13 | 20 | Portland +7 |
BYU shot 12 of 20 in the third quarter, including 4 of 8 from three. The Cougars grabbed eight offensive rebounds, scored 16 points in the paint and produced 11 fast-break points. Portland committed six turnovers and managed four field goals.
That is the part worth carrying forward. BYU did not merely wait for the outside shot to improve. It created paint touches, ran after steals and made Portland defend another action after a miss. The threes came inside a functioning offense instead of standing in for one.
Notoa gave every possession a second job
Notoa’s final line was the most complete on the floor: 13 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks in 22:55. She shot 6 of 9 and grabbed five offensive rebounds.
The scoring mattered, especially the pick-and-roll finish and steal during the opening third-quarter run. Her value went beyond 13 points.
BYU needed somebody who could connect the first action to the next one. Notoa rolled when the lane opened, moved the ball when help arrived and attacked the glass when a teammate shot. She committed one turnover while Gibb and Woolston combined for nine. On a night when Portland kept disrupting BYU’s first plan, Notoa kept finding a useful second one.
Her five offensive rebounds were nearly half of Portland’s team total of 10. She also blocked two shots and made two steals. Those plays let BYU leave the half-court mess behind and run.
The freshman did not need the offense built around her. That may be the most promising part. She improved possessions that started somewhere else.
BYU’s 52 rebounds covered a lot of bad shooting
The Cougars outrebounded Portland 52-36 and grabbed 22 offensive rebounds. BYU took 67 field-goal attempts to Portland’s 59 despite committing two more turnovers.
| Team stat | BYU | Portland |
|---|---|---|
| Total rebounds | 52 | 36 |
| Offensive rebounds | 22 | 10 |
| Field-goal attempts | 67 | 59 |
| Points in the paint | 34 | 22 |
| Fast-break points | 20 | 7 |
| Second-chance points | 16 | 11 |
| Turnovers | 17 | 15 |
The 22 offensive rebounds did not become a huge second-chance scoring gap. BYU won that category 16-11. Several recovered misses led to another miss, a reset or free throws rather than an immediate basket.
They still changed the game. Portland could not turn every BYU miss into offense at the other end. The Pilots had to defend 67 shots, and BYU eventually found the 20 attempts it wanted in the third quarter.
Gibb and Bolanle Yussuf each grabbed 10 rebounds. Notoa had eight. Kambree Taylor collected five, including four on the offensive end in 13 minutes. BYU did not leave the glass to one post player.
That committee work mattered because the shooting stayed poor outside the decisive quarter. BYU made 25 of 67 overall and 7 of 32 from deep. The Cougars shot 20 percent in the fourth, which allowed Portland to trim a 20-point deficit to single digits late.
Rebounding gave BYU enough volume to survive. It should not become permission to keep accepting the first available three.
Hamlin, Benally and Cannon supplied different answers
Hamlin led BYU with 15 points. She shot 5 of 16 and missed all seven 3-point attempts, but her game was more useful than that line looks. She made five of seven free throws, did not commit a turnover and scored the transition basket that put BYU ahead at the start of the third.
Benally scored 13 points in 20:36 off the bench. She made two of four from deep, then opened the fourth quarter with a four-point play that stretched BYU’s lead to 64-44. Her shot was the clean release after Portland’s defense had already moved.
Cannon scored 10 on 4-of-7 shooting, made two threes and did not turn the ball over in nearly 30 minutes. Her eight-point third quarter gave BYU another player Portland could not leave while the defense tilted toward the ball.
Those three lines explain how BYU survived a difficult night from Gibb. The sophomore guard finished with nine points and 10 rebounds but shot 3 of 12, missed all four threes and committed six turnovers. Portland’s pressure made her work for every entry and crowded the drives that usually organize BYU’s offense.
Gibb still helped close the game. When Portland pressed late, she handled the first wave and found Cannon for a driving finish that restored an 11-point lead with less than a minute left. It was not a clean night, but the final possession showed why BYU kept trusting her with the ball.
Portland’s freshmen made the warning real
The watch guide argued that Portland’s 38 forced turnovers against Division III Willamette could not be treated as a forecast. That was true. The Pilots did not overwhelm BYU in the same way.
Their pressure still traveled.
Portland forced 17 turnovers and held BYU below 40 percent from the field. Mangan scored 18 points and made four threes. Hokianga added 13. Rhyan Mogel scored 15, including eight in the fourth quarter as Portland cut into the lead.
The Pilots’ bench outscored BYU’s 34-33. Mangan and Hokianga were not collecting empty points after the game had been decided. They built the halftime lead and made BYU solve the pressure with a different group.
Portland also showed where BYU remains vulnerable. The Cougars had 12 turnovers by halftime and seven players committed at least one for the game. Better shooting covered the third quarter, but clean ball movement started the run. BYU cannot reverse that order and expect the same result.
What changes before Montana
BYU is 2-0. The Cougars have won two games with one excellent quarter in each. Against Idaho State, a 23-13 third quarter broke a 25-24 halftime game. Against Portland, 33-10 turned a six-point deficit into a 17-point lead.
That response is real. So is the habit of needing it.
The Idaho State recap showed how 23 offensive rebounds and 20 forced turnovers rescued a 33.8 percent shooting night. Portland gave BYU almost the same test with more pressure and better guard play. The Cougars answered with 22 offensive rebounds and a sharper third-quarter offense.
The improvement was not the final shooting percentage. BYU finished at 37.3 percent. It was the variety inside the decisive run: a Woolston three, a Hamlin steal, a Notoa roll, a Cannon three, another Notoa steal and multiple extra chances on the glass.
BYU hosts Montana on Saturday, Nov. 7 at 2 p.m. Mountain in the Marriott Center. The permanent women’s basketball schedule has the official event links, and the current roster tracks the young rotation.
The Cougars do not need to shoot 60 percent for a full game. They do need to stop spending a half proving how much repair work they can survive.
Sources and further reading
- BYU Athletics: stable event 25333 for the completed status, stable event ID, official recap ID, finalized WMT game ID, date and Marriott Center venue.
- BYU Athletics: official 74-64 recap for the game sequence, third-quarter runs and Montana follow-up.
- BYU Athletics: official box score, finalized WMT game 6644235 and finalized player data for the period splits, team totals, player lines, attendance and finalized status.
- Portland Athletics: opponent recap for independent confirmation of the final, period scores, Mangan and Hokianga career highs, Portland’s pressure totals and fourth-quarter response.
- BYU Sport Nuts: Portland watch guide, Idaho State recap, women’s basketball schedule and roster.
- BYU brand colors and University of Portland visual identity guide for the verified palettes used in the original matchup art. No official marks are reproduced.
