The Arizona women’s basketball team beat BYU 75-72 Tuesday night at McKale Center, earning first-year coach Becky Burke her first Big 12 victory.
“I am so happy for them,” Burke said her team, which improved to 10-5 overall and 1-3 in the Big 12. “We worked our butts off for this. They’re (BYU) a really good team.”
The Cougars (13-3, 2-2) were coming off handing Arizona State its first loss of the season with a victory over the Sun Devils at Provo, Utah, on Saturday.
Great hustle from the Cats tonight to get a BIG win against BYU 75-72
Pics from McKale..@AllSportsTucson @JavierJMorales @loriburkhart @AndyMorales8 @RCCerv pic.twitter.com/XOaRuIasVE— Stephanie van Latum (@SVanLatum) January 7, 2026
The victory over BYU occurred in front of 6,504 — the second-largest crowd of the season at McKale Center despite Arizona losing its first three Big 12 games.
Nora Francois led Arizona with a career-high 21 points and five steals, while Sumayah Sugapong followed with 18 points, nine coming from the free-throw line, where she was perfect.
Tanyuel Welch, a 5-foot-11 guard, also had a game to remember with a double-double that included 13 points and a career-high 14 rebounds, half of Arizona’s overall rebounds on the night.
“I just took pride and wanted to be on the floor. I do whatever it takes to help my team,” Welch said. “As you can see, I rebounded really well tonight and I feel like that’s what we needed the most.”
Sugapong’s clutch performance late in the game was the difference.
“My teammates trust me with the ball down the stretch, which does a lot for my confidence,” Sugapong said. “All the hours in the gym just getting the free throws. That’s what gave me the confidence to step up to those shots and knock them down.”
The fourth quarter started with BYU up 57-51. Similar to the first half, it was back and forth the rest of the way.
Arizona outscored BYU 13-6 to take the lead 64-63 with just under five minutes left.
The Wildcats and Cougars traded baskets before Arizona hung on to a 73-72 lead after two free throws by Sugapong in the waning seconds.
Francois tipped an inbound pass after BYU called a timeout. Sugapong came up with a crucial steal with 17 seconds left.
Sugapong then iced it with free throws to close it out 75-72.
BYU’s attempted 3-pointer at the buzzer did not draw rim.
“Honestly, I read the in-bounder’s eyes, and she was trying so hard not to look at my person so I was like, ‘All right it’s coming to her,’ so thankfully Sumayah turned around,” Francois said about the late steal.
BYU took an early seven-point lead before the Wildcats rallied to tie it 12-12 and end the first quarter with a 22-20 lead.
Arizona’s defense especially stood out early, ending the quarter with seven forced turnovers.
The second quarter went a lot like the first with five lead changes and nine more turnovers by the Cougars.
The Wildcats only converted three field goals all quarter but made 3 of 4 free-throw attempts, while BYU went 0 of 4 from the line.
Mickayla Perdue also began to heat up from behind the arc hitting two crucial threes, the second to tie the game 33-33 before going into halftime.
The Cougars came out of halftime focused, scoring 24 points in the third quarter thanks to a cleaned-up effort from the free-throw line (7 of 8) and hitting on 50% from the field (7 of 14).
The Wildcats went 5 of 15 and were out rebounded by three in the quarter.
Arizona finished the game forcing 27 turnovers and outscored BYU by 15 from the free-throw line.
The Wildcats will next face UCF on Saturday at 2 p.m. at McKale Center.
“I don’t have to know anything about them to know that we need to bring our best Saturday,” Burke said about the UCF game. “We need to play high-level basketball. We need to build off this momentum. We need to be extremely locked in.”
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