BYU Falls To UCF In First Round Of Big 12 Women’s Tournament
Mar 5, 2025, 1:56 PM | Updated: Mar 6, 2025, 10:28 am
BYU women’s basketball had a brief stay in the Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City.
The Cougars were bounced in the first round against 13-seed UCF 81-69.
Final: UCF 81, BYU 69
BYU women's team gets bounced in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament.
This is the second year in a row that BYU is one-and-done in the conference tournament.
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) March 5, 2025
UCF guard Kaitlin Peterson dropped 35 points on 12-of-21 shooting from the field to give the Knights their first-ever win in the Big 12 Tournament.
BYU women’s basketball falls to UCF in the Big 12 Tournament
“UCF is a really good team. They brought it today. A couple of keys to the game was transition points and offensive rebounds. We need to make sure we take care of that, and I think we did not. So now, we’ve got to go look ourselves in the mirror,” said BYU coach Amber Whiting.
The loss is BYU’s fifth straight and drops their record to 13-17 overall. BYU isn’t ruling out the possibility of a postseason tournament like the WNIT, but that will not be sorted out until Selection Sunday on March 16.
BYU had an early 22-20 lead after the first quarter. However, the issues that plagued BYU all season reared its ugly face in the second quarter, as they committed eight turnovers and only scored seven points in that quarter.
BYU finished with 18 turnovers in the loss. UCF scored 27 points off BYU’s 18 giveaways.
BYU continued to battle with reserve forward Kendra Gillisipie, scoring seven of her season-high 10 points in the third quarter to bring the Cougars within one at the end of the third.
“I thought some of our players played a really good game. I thought ‘KG’ brought it tonight,” Whiting said. “She inserted her will and I’m super proud of her.”
Then the Knights took over with an 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter and they never looked back.
“They got some easy ones in transition,” Whiting said on UCF pulling away in the fourth. “They got a couple of easy ones off offensive rebounds, but then we let Kaitlin get away from us a little bit. We needed to lock her down.”
UCF held BYU star guard and Big 12 Freshman of the Year Delaney Gibb to only 15 points on 17 shot attempts. Gibb didn’t hit any of her four field goal attempts in the fourth quarter.
BYU had four players score in double-figures. Sophomore guard Amari Whiting scored 14 points and grabbed five rebounds, and senior guard Kemery Congdon added 11 points.
Amber Whiting’s thoughts on the 2024-25 season
It’s the second consecutive season BYU women’s basketball has had a one-and-done exit in the Big 12 Tournament.
BYU’s 13-17 record (.433) is the lowest winning percentage the Cougars have had since 2008.
Barring a run in a postseason tournament, if they land an at-large bid, the 2025 campaign is the third consecutive losing season for third-year head coach Amber Whiting as BYU’s head coach.
When asked for her general impressions of the season as the 2025 campaign wraps up, Whiting said, “We lost a heartbreaker at Utah just a couple of days ago, really.
“I told them, we’ve lost eight games this season of 10 points or less, and we’ve been right there in a bunch of them. So I see the good that we have. I see that we need to clean up some little things in the end, but turnovers and offensive rebounds has plagued us all season, and so that needs to be addressed. We need to have some growth in that for the offseason for next year.”
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X: @Mitch_Harper.
