PROVO — BYU women’s basketball celebrated a lot of firsts Wednesday night in the Marriott Center, including the first game of the Lee Cummard era.
First game, first win.
Brinley Cannon scored 16 points, including three 3-pointers, and Lara Rohkohl added 13 points and 10 rebounds in her first official game since transferring from the College of Charleston to lead the Cougars to a 91-57 win over Coastal Carolina in the 2025-26 season opener.
Former Snow Canyon High standout Olivia Hamlin added 13 points, three rebounds and three assists in 25 minutes off the bench for BYU (1-0), which got 12 points apiece from Arielle Mackey-Williams and Delaney Gibb.
Gibb, the reigning Big 12 freshman of the year, also had five assists and four rebounds, but shot just 3-of-13 from the field while pressured by a full-court defense from Coastal’s Olivia Klanac.
The sophomore from Raymond, Alberta, who debuted over the summer with the Canadian national team went 0 for her first 8 3-point attempts before one fell with 4:42 remaining — providing a noticeable sigh of relief for Gibb.
But her teammates more than carried the load, securing Cummard’s first win as the full-time head coach by outscoring Coastal 38-20 in the paint, 27-2 in transition, and assisted on 27-of-30 made field goals — led by freshman Sydney Benally’s 11 dimes, the most by a BYU player in a single game since Shaylee Gonzales (2018-2022).
“It’s so much fun to play with her,” Rohkohl said of Benally, the former two-time New Mexico Gatorade player of the year, “especially someone coming in as a freshman and already having that eye and being able to do that is really impressive.”
Kristin Williams led Coastal Carolina (0-2) with 17 points, and Paige Bradley added 13 points and nine rebounds.
It wasn’t technically the first win for Cummard as a head coach; he officially went 3-0 as acting head coach during the 2021-22 when then-BYU coach Jeff Judkins was sidelined due to COVID-19.
But Wednesday night was different, with the former BYU star’s first victory as a full-time collegiate head coach. And the Cougars? They celebrated it like one might expect.
“A lot of water,” Rohkohl described of the postgame locker room with a laugh.
“It just gets us excited for the season,” Hamlin added, “to see what we can do.”
Rohkohl had 8 points, and BYU held the Chanticleers scoreless for more than three minutes in the first quarter en route to a 17-14 lead at the quarter break.
Braeden Gunlock’s 3-pointer with 7:56 left in the half helped the Cougars to a 7-0 spurt to start the second quarter. But back-to-back makes including a pull-up 3-pointer from two steps beyond the arc by Kinsea Grimes pulled Coastal within a possession, 26-24 with 3:18 left in the half.
But the Chants connected on just 5-of-14 from the field in the second quarter, including 1-of-8 from deep and Rohkohl had 10 points and five rebounds for BYU en route to a 36-29 halftime lead.
A BYU team that returned all but one missionary, two transfers and five graduated seniors — but 42.9% of its returning production, including 17.40 points per game from reigning Big 12 freshman of the year Gibb — played with the identity of its first-year head coach, former Mountain West co-player of the year Cummard: defensively stingy and unabashed from the 3-point line.
The Cougars took 36 3-pointers, made 10 of them, and held Coastal Carolina to 28.2% shooting including 7-of-36 (19.4%) from beyond the arc.
“I was proud that people kept shooting them; sometimes you can get a little gun shy if they don’t make (threes) — especially if it’s short,” Cummard said. “We were letting that thing fly.”
The Chanticleers connected on just one of their first 15 shot attempts of the second half — a 3-pointer by Williams — and Arielle Mackey-Williams capped a 20-0 run with a corner three with 3:03 left in the third quarter.
That put the Cougars up 58-32 en route to a 22-8 third-quarter spurt that helped put the game out of reach.
More difficult challenges will come, especially when BYU enters Big 12 play — a conference led by four preseason Associated Press Top 25 teams. But you never forget your first, and Cummard’s first win was nothing if not memorable.
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