BYU’s Big Three Shut Down Cavinder Twins In Win Over Fresno State

PROVO, Utah – BYU Women’s Basketball passed the first test of their demanding non-conference schedule. Led by their trio of stars in Shaylee Gonzales, Paisley Harding, and Lauren Gustin, the Cougars rolled past Mountain West’s favorite Fresno State 80-64 to improve to 2-0 on the season.

Cougs win! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/sCmpRsA8xl

— BYU Women's Hoops (@byuwbb) November 14, 2021

Coming into the matchup, the big storyline was the battle at the guard position. Two of the nation’s best guards were on display in BYU’s Gonzales and Fresno State’s Haley Cavinder. Cavinder, along with her twin sister Hanna, combined for 37 points per game a season ago.

Hayley Cavinder was coming into Saturday’s matchup fresh off a triple-double in a win over UVU.

Two of the best guards in women's college basketball facing off today at the Marriott Center.#BYU's Shaylee Gonzales vs. Fresno State's Haley Cavinder. #BYUWBB @kslsports

— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) November 13, 2021

The Cavinder Twins are two of the biggest college stars in the new NIL era. Both were featured in a recent HBO Real Sports story that also included the BYU football program.

But it was the star power from Jeff Judkins’ BYU squad that shined the brightest on Saturday afternoon at the Marriott Center.

BYU Women’s Basketball ‘Big Three’ led the way

Gonzales and Harding each scored a game-high 22 points, with Gonzales setting the tone in the game scoring 14 of her points in the first two quarters of play.

1, 2, 3, 3-POINTERS in 3 MINUTES for @paisleynikelle 🔥 pic.twitter.com/QCWBj6qCOi

— BYU Women's Hoops (@byuwbb) November 14, 2021

Harding, who was battling food poisoning earlier in the week, took over in the third and fourth quarter to put the game out of reach from Fresno State, scoring 16 points in the final 20 minutes.

Down in the post, Lauren Gustin put together another double-double performance. The AP Honorable Mention All-American a season ago scored 16 points and pulled down 13 rebounds.

BYU forced 13 turnovers on Fresno State, and the Cougars scored 19 points off those turnovers, to Fresno’s six points off BYU’s eight miscues.

Fresno’s Cavinder Twins struggled against BYU

The Cavinder Twins were held to seven points on just 3-10 shooting from the field in the first half.

“Luckily, we were able to watch them in person when they played UVU,” said Paisley Harding on preparing for the Cavinder Twins to BYUtv in the postgame. “We were able to see their tendencies and we wanted to keep the ball out of their hands. I think we were able to do that for most of the night.”

Welcome to the 1,000 point club @CavinderHanna 👏

Did it in just 62 games.#GoDogs | #PrideOfTheValley pic.twitter.com/DWktXMEJnY

— Fresno State WBB (@FresnoStateWBB) November 14, 2021

Haley and Hanna Cavinder combined to finish with 23 points, with 11 of those points coming in the fourth quarter with the game out of reach. Hanna Cavinder finished with 14 points and passed 1,000 points in her Fresno career.

BYU’s size caused a problem for Fresno State, with more than half of the Cougars’ 80 points coming in the paint. A total of 42 paints were scored in the painted area for BYU, compared to only 24 for Fresno State.

Next up for BYU is a matinee tilt against the Arizona State Sun Devils from the Pac-12 Conference. Tip-off is at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, November 17, for field trip day as elementary-aged students are expected to fill up the Marriott Center seats.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.

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