The BYU against Washington State fixture threw up a meeting involving five Kiwis and also a rematch of sorts between contestants from the 2015 National Secondary Schools Grand Final in which St Peter’s School Cambridge beat Wellington Girls’ College.
Back in 2015 Tegan Graham was a leading figure on the Wellington College team that finished runners-up to Krystal and Charlisse Leger-Walker and the victorious St Peter’s team.
In a spicy contest on Sunday (NZT) Graham exacted a degree of revenge for that defeat six years ago as BYU underlined their Top-20 ranking with a 71-53 win – the Wellingtonian posting an impressive 15 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, a block and a steal.
Despite being pinged with three first quarter fouls Charlisse Leger-Walker still played the leading hand for Washington State as she made 6 from 10 from beyond the arc for 21 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists. That was a new career high in 3-pointers made.
Krystal Leger-Walker filled most of the stats columns with 5 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals for Washington State.
BYU welcomed back former Waikato teammate of the L-W sisters Kaylee Smiler. Despite being absent for the last month with a knee injury the whippy guard provided her usual defensive hustle finishing with 2 points, 2 rebounds and a steal.
BYU freshman Arielle Mackey-Williams entered the action for the final minute of the game.
It was one way traffic at Fresno State with the Bulldogs chewing up UC Merced 81-29. Amiee Book led the Bulldogs scoring with a game high, and season best, 18 points making 8 of her 10 shots.
Other Women’s Scores
Boise State 54 (Kaitlin Burgess 6pts, 2a, 1reb) Pepperdine 56
USC 77 (Tera Reed 4pts, 3rebs, 3a, 3 steals) Texas Southern 45
St Peter’s, New Jersey 68 (Victoria Ikenasio 2pts, 2rebs) Niagara 64
Wofford 49 (Helen Matthews 2pts, 1reb) Clemson 84
Georgia Southern 71 (Tsubasa Nisbett 2pts, 2rebs, 1a, 1stl, 1 block) Kennesaw State 72
Yuat Alok was in the scoring groove again as New Mexico State proved too good for state rivals Northern New Mexico winning 93-60.
Alok finished with 16 points (6/8FG, 3/4FT) as well as 5 rebounds – 4 of which were off the offensive glass.
Sam Mennenga scored just two points as Davidson College defeated Radford 74-54 but it did bring up the 200th career point for the former Westlake forward. He also tallied 4 rebounds, an assist and a steal.
St Mary’s California 53 (Dan Fotu 2pts, 1reb) San Diego State 63
LACEY LOWDOWN 