NCAA Tournament: BYU Women’s Basketball beats Auburn in first round game

The seventh-seed BYU Cougars beat tenth-seeded Auburn, 73-64 Saturday afternoon at Maples Pavilion in their first round game in the NCAA Tournament.

The Cougars were led by Brenna Chase, who provided the Cougars with 19 points in the win, as well as seven assists to lead the Cougars in both categories.

Auburn opened the first quarter strong, breaking out to an 11-5 Tiger lead. Chase would make her first three of the night to spark a 13-2 run from the Cougars that would extend into the second quarter. Several runs by the Tigers in the second and third quarters would tie the game up, but the Cougars never trailed again in the game.

The Cougars would increase the lead to double digits several times in the third quarter, only for Auburn to chip away at it. The Cougars highest lead of the game came with just under five minutes left, with Chase making a layup to go up 64-50. The Tigers weren’t going to give up though, and came storming back to cut the lead to four with two minutes left.

Clutch shooting from Chase and Shaylee Gonzales would finish out the game for the Cougars, who scored eight of the Cougars’ final nine points.

The Cougars will play in the second round on Monday against the winner of two-seed Stanford and 15-seed UC Davis.