WOMEN'S BASKETBALL INVITATION TOURNAMENT: KANSAS VS BYU

March 30, 2026

Lee Cummard

Sydney Benally

Olivia Hamlin

Lara Rohkohl

Charles Koch Arena

BYU Cougars

Semifinal Postgame Press Conference

BYU 70, Kansas 67

LEE CUMMARD: Tremendous atmosphere and experience for our group. Brandon, or Coach Schneider and his staff do such a fantastic job. They've really had our number since we've come into this league. They've got two of my favorite players on opposing teams, on their team, of anybody in the conference. They're a really hard matchup for us. He does a great job of finding the mismatches and opportunities for his group.

So grateful for these three up here that had a tremendous game. And Lara kind of was a pillar defensively for us, and then Sydney and Olivia were tremendous in the second half, just alleviating some of the pressure that they were putting on Delaney and making huge plays, big shot after big shot, attacking the rim, and ultimately the scoring of Sydney and Olivia ended up being the difference.

In that last however many seconds it was, you saw what happened in the men's tournament yesterday, and you're just trying not to be that. That's a great learning experience for our group. But some really good decisions and learning experience moments for our group in that.

But just a great college basketball game and just two good teams that went toe to toe.

Q. Sydney, you had 15 points tonight, seven of them in the fourth quarter. Can you tell me especially in that fourth quarter what was working well for you?

SYDNEY BENALLY: I think a lot of it was just from Delaney. She was finding me in transition, and I could hear from the sideline, just spot up, so I was constantly encouraged to just keep shooting. With their confidence in me, I had confidence in myself.

Q. Sydney, Olivia, you guys had those three massive three-pointers there in the mid portion of the fourth. What was running through your head as you hit those to give your team the lead and eventually build some cushion there?

OLIVIA HAMLIN: I think we just had a lot of momentum going in. I think when we have the momentum and energy on our side, it just makes us have all this confidence in ourselves, and then that's when we start hitting shots, and then we just have fun out there. When we have fun out there, it's pretty fun.

SYDNEY BENALLY: I think along with Olivia, we were getting stops on defense, so we were able to get in our transition offense, and that's what we thrive in.

Q. Lara, you had 14 rebounds and six blocks. What was working so well for you on defense?

LARA ROHKOHL: I don't know, that's my favorite thing to do, like rebounding and blocking people. So I don't know, like just being able to help my teammates out down there and just, yeah, blocking and rebounding, not giving Kansas a second chance. So yeah.

Q. Olivia, in your last -- in the February matchup against Kansas, you were 1 for 7 from the field, and then tonight you had 23 points. What has changed for you from that game to this game, and what have you worked on specifically to improve your game?

OLIVIA HAMLIN: I think this game just coming in with the confidence of, like, we could play harder than what we played last time and just having that confidence and trust in our teammates, and I think that's exactly what we did.

We came out ready to win, and I think that's what helped me.

Q. Lara, can you speak to just the confidence of both of those freshmen sitting next to you to step up and take those threes? Just how confident are they and how big were those shots?

LARA ROHKOHL: Oh, those shots were amazing. Those shots got us ahead and those shots won us the game, but also I've seen throughout the season they have amazing games where they're just like upperclassmen, just standing on that line shooting it and they know it's going to go in and all of us have the trust in them to hit those shots and we know they're going to make it.

Q. The first half was really similar to the first matchup that you guys had with Kansas this past year. What was the difference strategy you used going into the second half that was different from last game?

LEE CUMMARD: You know, we didn't really switch a whole lot up, other than I think Delaney did a better job of forging her role in the second half.

In the first half she was trying to do a little bit too much, and we just talked about, hey, if we've got an early kick-ahead, let's push it ahead. She made some fantastic reads. Now, it helps that Syd and Liv were making threes, but she did a much better job of managing the game in the second half and finding the open person, and then when we got matchups that we like, attacking them and finishing at the rim.

I thought that was huge. A lot of the time we just called a play for Liv to get downhill and you guys seen her, she's hard to stay in front, she's got a really quick first step, and that kind of alleviated some of the pressure they were putting on us defensively because they were hugging Delaney on the week side and allowed driving lines.

But overall some more shots went in. I thought we had some pretty good looks early and they just didn't go, and those shots really kind of gave us -- we're a young team, so when you start making shots, it just changes how they defend and how they were communicating.

But overall I thought it was a more complete game from the group in the second half.

Q. Coach, you talked about back in February that Jaliya Davis could get going at any moment. She had all those points in the second against you back then. What adjustment did you make between now and then?

LEE CUMMARD: You know, we came into this game with quite a few things to -- in the event that she got going, that we would have to throw at her. We crowded her. 52 got some shots because we were playing off of her and trying to make it uncomfortable for Davis.

But overall, I thought that aside from a few possessions when we got buried, she's a fantastic player, but we got buried too low and she gets to that right hook and she's so athletic and long.

But we played her kind of with a body and a half the whole game, and just kind of charged our two bigs, Lara and Bola to, hey, let's go. You guys have her and see what you can do. Never really felt like we needed to change that up and let some of their shooters get free.

We talked about at halftime, hey, they're going to go to S'Mya and Davis, but felt like it was just let's see what we can get going offensively, and that ultimately was the difference.

Q. Coach, how impressive was it to see the confidence of those two freshmen, those three straight threes kind of swung the game. What impressed you the most, and has that been all season long that they've had that confidence, or has that been building?

LEE CUMMARD: Yeah, it's definitely been building. Our team's confidence has also been building. Sydney is always poised. She's always composed. She doesn't show a lot of -- Liv, as well, but in the last game it seemed like we didn't even get close to making shots at their place, and we didn't do that in the first half, either.

It was kind of like, hey, can we get out of this little rut, then some of those started to go in, which created a little more driving line for some of our other guards.

With Olivia, I've been around this game a long time. I've never seen somebody fill it up as fast as her. We've seen it multiple times this season where she sees that thing go through the hoop, and it is on. Like it's just an onslaught.

I'm just really proud of how confident Sydney was and even Olivia, too. Olivia shot one that seemed like six feet over the basket and came back the next one and shot it with confidence.

I thought Delaney recognizing that, how they were playing her, hey, let's spray it a little bit, and that was tremendous for us.

Q. Coach, just the crowd in general is very KU heavy but you had pretty good BYU contingent. What did you think about it?

LEE CUMMARD: We knew they were going to have some fans here. It's pretty close, and we knew we were going to have some fans here.

I think down the stretch, there was a time-out or a dead ball where it was KU and BYU chants going. That's what college basketball is all about. It was fun. Really talented athletes out there, making plays for their team in key moments.

I think that the product that was shown today will continue to help grow the game. But it was a great environment and a great facility to play in.