PROVO, Utah – Down three starters, Santa Clara women's basketball fell at BYU 71-48 Saturday afternoon.

Regular starters Tia Hay, Tamia Braggs, and Merle Wiehl, who average a combined 29.0 points per game, were all out for the Broncos with injuries (8-12, 2-7 WCC) and the offense felt the loss, shooting just 23.7-percent from the field while going 6-for-24 from downtown.

The Cougars (12-7, 7-2 WCC) offense took advantage of a lot of chances close to the basket and shot 52.6-percent from the floor while outscoring Santa Clara 46-10 in points in the paint.

Sara Hamson led the way with 15 points on 7 of 10 shooting and added seven rebounds as well. Paisley Johnson scored 12 with Babalu Ugwu scoring 11 and Brenna Drollinger adding 10.

A 7-0 Cougar run in the third quarter put some distance between the two teams. After a pair of free throws started things, Ugwu connected on a jumper and a 3-pointer, the later making it 47-31 with 2:14 to go in the period. After that point, the lead would never dip below 13 and grow to as much as 25.

The Broncos finally got some offense going late in the second quarter with Addi Walters connecting on a pair of triples to close out the half. Her second made it 29-22 with under a minute to go.

Lindsey VanAllen scored a game high 16 and was a perfect 9-for-9 from the free throw line, scoring Santa Clara's final six points from the charity stripe. Ashlyn Herlihy picked up her third double-double of the season with 13 points and 13 rebounds and Walters scored nine.

BYU took advantage of the first cold streak from the field by Santa Clara to go on an 8-0 run midway through the first half. The Broncos went without a field goal for almost nine minutes and the Cougars turned a one-point lead into an 18-9 advantage after back-to-back layups by Hamson.

NOTES

• Santa Clara is now 2-19 all-time against BYU.
• Emily Wolph made her third straight start. Naomi Jimenez was in the starting lineup for the second time this year and Addi Walters made the first start of her Santa Clara career.
• The Broncos had an 11-1 advantage on the offensive glass.

UP NEXT
The Broncos return home to start a stretch of three in a row at Leavey Center, beginning with San Francisco Saturday at 1 p.m. 

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