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Four in double figures as BYU women hold off Houston 76-66 for 1st Big 12 Tournament win

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Olivia Hamlin scored 16 points, Delaney Gibb and Lara Rohkohl each had 15, and Sydney Benally added 14 as BYU beat Houston 76-66 in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament on Wednesday.

After winning its first Big 12 Tournament game in its third season as a conference member, ninth-seeded BYU (21-10) will play eighth-seeded Utah in the second round Thursday.

BYU outshot 16th-seeded Houston 47% to 31% but had to overcome 22 turnovers and didn’t have the game in hand until the final minutes.

Shun’teria Anumele scored 17 points and TK Pitts 14 for Houston (7-23). The two combined for eight straight points as Houston cut a 12-point deficit to three to open the fourth quarter. BYU held on, leading by five with 3:20 to go before scoring the next eight points with Hamlin making it 74-61 on a bucket in the paint.

Brinley Cannon hit a 3-pointer — her first shot of the game — to open the third and give BYU the lead for good. Rohkohl scored eight points on 4-of-5 shooting and BYU led 56-44 heading into the final period.

BYU never trailed but found itself tied at 29 at halftime after committing 15 turnovers, 10 in the first quarter when it led 11-10.

Jade Jones added 11 points for Houston.

BYU had won the lone regular-season matchup 79-64 on Jan. 10 against a Houston team that was missing four players, three of whom had been suspended for the game following their ejections after a scuffle against Kansas State on Jan. 7.

Up next

BYU: The Cougars, on a four-game win streak, swept Utah in two regular-season games, each time by 12 points.

Houston: Season is over after going 1-17 in Big 12 play before losing Wednesday.

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Hawkeyes are set to play Vanderbilt in a November women’s basketball game in Sioux City, Iowa

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Vanderbilt and Iowa, both ranked in the top 10 late last season, will meet in a women's basketball game early next season in northwest Iowa, the schools announced Tuesday. The neutral-site game is set for Nov. 15 at the Tyson Events Center, which is 290 miles from Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. Vanderbilt is 4-0 all-time against the Hawkeyes. This will be the teams' first meeting since 1997. The Commodores are expected to return national scoring leader Mikayla Blakes. She averaged 27 points per game and was Southeastern Conference player of the year. Vanderbilt was ranked as high as No. 5 and finished No. 10 with a 29-5 record after reaching the NCAA Sweet 16.
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