PORTLAND, Ore. – BYU women's basketball dropped a 67-45 game to the Portland Pilots on the back end of a tough two-game road swing on Monday night at the Chiles Center.
The Cougars (4-8, 0-2) got 13 points tying a career high, eight rebounds and three blocks out of sophomore Emma Calvert but it wasn't enough to overcome a cold shooting night. Calvert went 6 for 10 from the field, but BYU managed just 31.0 percent as a team and fell behind late in the first half and weren't able to mount a comeback down the stretch.
Arielle Mackey-Williams chipped in eight points off the bench, including the Cougars' only two makes from distance. Rose Bubakar added seven points and Lauren Gustin saw her double-double streak end at 11 games, but still had 12 rebounds and seven points.
First half
After a three-minute scoring drought to start the game, Portland got on the board first with a two. Calvert and Gustin answered back with back-to-back buckets for a 4-2 lead four minutes into the game.
The Pilots went on a 9-0 run before Amanda Barcello broke it up with a jumper to cut the lead to 13-8 in the closing minute of the first quarter. Nani Falatea added another score and BYU trailed 14-10 at the end of the first.
The Cougars kept the edge at 20-17 but a Portland 5-0 run put them in a hole with four minutes to play in the first half.
BYU fell behind 32-21 at halftime with the Pilots putting together another run down the stretch.
Second half
Portland pushed its lead to 40-24 over the first five minutes of the second half. BYU and the Pilots traded baskets for most of the remaining third quarter minutes, until a late run put the Cougars in a 20-point deficit heading into the final 10 minutes.
BYU was unable to get the lead under 20 the rest of the way, despite seven points from Calvert and a bucket by Heather Hamson to get on the board late. Portland went on to win 67-45.
The Cougars return home to step out of conference play for one more game, hosting Monmouth at the Marriott Center on Wednesday at 1 p.m. The game will be streamed on BYUtv.org and the BYUtv App.