SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara women's basketball fell to BYU 68-63 on Thursday night in Leavey. Despite leading after each of the first three quarters, a difficult fourth quarter cost the Broncos.

In the fourth there were three ties and three lead changes in the final period with BYU taking the lead for good at 2:46 on a pair of free throws from Kalani Purcell.

"Tonight was a physical game like we expected," said Santa Clara head coach JR Payne. "Rebounding is purely effort and in the first half we were dominating that. In the second half clearly they had the advantage. That's what turned the game on us late. Every night in the WCC is a tough game and you have to be prepared to play for 40 minutes."

Santa Clara (12-4, 3-2 WCC) was led by 14 points from Kyla Martin who also added five assists. Lori Parkinson had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds while Dru Toleafoa scored 10 points, all in the first half.

BYU (11-4, 3-1 WCC) got 27 from Lexi Rydalch on 5 of 9 shooting from beyond the arc, including 20 in the second half. Purcell scored 17 and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.

"Lexi Rydalch is the best player in this conference," said Payne. "To hold her to seven points in the first half is great but you have to know she's still capable of going for 30."

The Cougars scored eight straight points from the free throw line to get on top 66-58 with under a minute to go in the game. The Broncos finally got back on the board when Taylor Berry grabbed an offensive rebound and put it back up but Santa Clara couldn't use the bucket to spark a come back.

Rydalch started the second half with five straight points and the Cougars scored the first seven to tie the game at 39-all. The Broncos didn't panic and instead went on a 6-0 run while BYU missed nine straight shots.

BYU started the first quarter with the advantage and got the lead to as much as 16-11 with 3:29 left in the opening period. The Broncos scored the final nine points, including a buzzer beater by Devin Hudson, to hold a 20-16 lead.

In the second quarter Santa Clara used an 8-0 run over a minute and a half to build a 28-21 lead at the 6:17 mark. The Cougars didn't score for nearly three minutes until Makenzi Pulsipher hit a baseline jumper.

Santa Clara returns to action Saturday at 2 p.m. vs. San Diego.