Basketball

Season Review

The Cougar women’s basketball team concluded the 2019-20 campaign with an 18-11, 13-5 record, tied for second place in the West Coast Conference regular season race and entered the WCC Tournament as the No. 3 seed. The Cougars were anticipating extending their season, with a likely invitation to compete in the postseason WNIT, but the season was cut short due to COVID-19.

During the season, the Cougars went on a six-game win streak, collecting wins in league play over San Diego, Pacific, St. Mary’s, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Portland. In the WCC race, they swept the series against LMU, Pepperdine, Pacific, St. Mary’s and Pepperdine. When playing in the Marriott Center, the Cougars had a 10-3 record including a 7-2 mark in league play.

BYU had a tough nonconference schedule playing four games at home, four on the road and two at neutral sites. The Cougars collected wins over Texas A&M Kingsville, Fresno State, Utah State, Utah Valley and San Jose State. BYU competed in the 2019 Maui Jim Maui Classic in Hawai’i where it defeated the Spartans and battled No. 4 Oregon State. Senior guard Brenna Chase Drollinger was named to the All-Tournament Team.

When the Cougars went to play a league game in Malibu versus Pepperdine on Dec. 30, the 65-47 win gave head coach Jeff Judkins his 400th career win, making him the all-time winningest head coach for men or women’s basketball at BYU.

Two players on the team joined a select group of 31 BYU players who have scored more than 1,000 points in their careers. Senior guard Brenna Chase Drollinger reached the milestone with eight points in a home game against Utah; she concluded her career ranked 19th all-time in points with 1,304. Junior guard Paisley Johnson eclipsed 1,000 points with 23 in a road game at Santa Clara; she ranks 27th all-time in scoring with 1,072 career points going into her senior season in 2020-21.

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At the time the season ended, the Cougars were nationally ranked second in field goal percentage defense (32.2), third in blocked shots per game (6.7) and in blocked shots (195), 12th in scoring defense (54.8) and 21st in defensive rebounds per game (28.7).
Several Cougar players finished the year ranked in multiple categories in the WCC. Johnson, who led the BYU team averaging 15.2 points per game, finished fifth in scoring in the league. She had the team’s best free-throw percentage (.819) and was fourth in that category in the WCC. Johnson ranked second in steals (1.5) and third in assists (3.1) on the team, while her assists average ranked 10th in the league.

Chase Drollinger averaged 12.2 points per game for second on the team and 15th in the conference. She was the team’s assists (4.3) and steals (1.8) leader. Those averages placed her in fifth and eighth place, respectively, in the WCC. Drollinger led the league in minutes played with a 36.6 average while ranking second in 3-point field goals made (2.2) and fifth in assist/turnover ratio (1.5).

Junior center Sara Hamson was the team’s rebounds (7.9) and blocks (4.72) leader while also leading the nation in total blocked shots (137) and in blocks per game (4.72). She led the league in blocked shots and in field goal percentage (.560) while ranking fourth in defensive rebounds (5.6) and 11th in offensive rebounds. Hamson finished her junior campaign ranked third all-time at BYU in career blocks with 336, needing four to tie her sister Jennifer with 340 career blocks.

With an experience-packed roster returning next season, the Cougars have nothing but high hopes for another successful winning season and returning to the NCAA Tournament.