{"id":15531,"date":"2025-11-24T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T20:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/byus-benally-weber-states-billy-face-off-in-division-i-womens-basketball-game\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:34:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:34:19","slug":"byus-benally-weber-states-billy-face-off-in-division-i-womens-basketball-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/byus-benally-weber-states-billy-face-off-in-division-i-womens-basketball-game\/","title":{"rendered":"BYU’s Benally, Weber State’s Billy face off in Division I women\u2019s basketball game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"BYU
BYU freshman guard Sydney Benally (left) defends Weber State senior guard Lanae Billy (right) during the Cougars 79-62 win Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025 in Provo, Utah. (Truman Begaye\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Truman Begaye<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

OGDEN, Utah \u2013 In a rare and meaningful Division I women\u2019s basketball matchup, BYU freshman guard Sydney Benally and Weber State senior Lanae Billy faced off Saturday afternoon, connected by their shared hometown roots in Shiprock.<\/p>\n

While Benally attended Sandia High School and Billy played at Piedra Vista High School, the two Din\u00e9 women\u2019s players competed for the first time on the NCAA Division I stage, adding a unique regional connection to the contest.<\/p>\n

The two players traded impactful stretches through three competitive quarters before the Cougars pulled away for a 79-62 win in the final period.<\/p>\n

Benally finished with nine points and a team-high nine assists, shooting 2-for-8 from the field and a perfect 4-for-4 at the line. Billy also scored nine points on 3-for-7 shooting and went 2-for-4 from the free-throw line before fouling out early in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

\"BYU
BYU freshman guard Sydney Benally launches a three-pointer during the Cougars 79-62 win over Weber State on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025 at the Marriott Center. (Truman Begaye\/Special to the Tri-City Record)<\/span>Truman Begaye<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Weber State opened fast, jumping to a 4-0 lead as BYU missed its first three attempts. The Cougars responded with a 5-0 run, but Weber State controlled much of the first quarter behind Billy, who hit a jumper to put the Wildcats ahead 13-12 and later knocked down a three-pointer to help them close the period up 19-16.<\/p>\n

BYU redshirt juniors Arielle Mackey-Williams and Marya Hudgins each scored six in the quarter, while Weber State senior Antoniette Emma-Nnopu led all scorers with seven.<\/p>\n

The second quarter saw limited scoring from Benally, who added two rebounds, two assists and two turnovers. BYU leaned instead on sophomore Brinkley Cannon with seven points and senior forward Hattie Ogden with six to take a 38-35 halftime lead, outscoring the Wildcats 22-16. Billy added two points in the frame while Emma-Nnopu contributed six more.<\/p>\n

Benally found her rhythm in the third, scoring four points and going 2-for-2 at the line while adding two rebounds and two assists. Senior forward Lara Rohkohl took over the period with 13 points as BYU built a 61-54 lead entering the fourth.<\/p>\n

Weber State junior guard Hannah Robbins had nine in the quarter, while Billy added two points and picked up her fourth foul.<\/p>\n

The fourth belonged entirely to the Cougars. Weber State shot just 4-for-14 and managed eight points, while BYU went 5-for-9 and 6-for-8 at the line to outscore the Wildcats by 18 in the period.<\/p>\n

Benally closed strong, hitting a field goal, a three-pointer and both of her free throws for five points. Billy fouled out after one minute of play in the quarter, finishing below her 14.5 points per game average.<\/p>\n

Rohkohl led BYU with a season-high 18 points as the Cougars shot 46% from the field and 40% (9-for-22) from three-point range. BYU\u2019s bench outscored Weber State\u2019s 29-13.<\/p>\n

Robbins led Weber State with 19 points, while Emma-Nnopu posted 17 points and eight rebounds. The Wildcats shot 43.1% overall and 18.2% from deep.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was two different halves,\u201d BYU head coach Lee Cummard said. \u201cThey beat us to loose balls and controlled the glass. In the second half we played much more connected on both sides of the ball and looked more like BYU basketball. There\u2019s still some cleanup work to do, but I\u2019m glad our team made the switch at halftime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benally said she is continuing to settle into the college game.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting reps as the season moves along and building team chemistry has been important,\u201d Benally said. \u201cIn high school I played as a big guard, and now I\u2019m going against more size. I just keep putting in the work and evaluating my game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Din\u00e9 basketball stars shine bright in Cougars 79-62 win over Wildcats<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15532,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[600,992,799,28,680,1775,1655,1709,29,1773,1774,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-basketball","tag-college-sports","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-high-school-girls-basketball","tag-national-collegiate-athletic-association","tag-navajo-nation","tag-new-mexico-activities-association","tag-newsletter","tag-piedra-vista-high-school","tag-shiprock","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15531"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19706,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15531\/revisions\/19706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15531"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}