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Provo • The BYU women's basketball team found itself in a unique situation Saturday.

With four games remaining, the Cougars had a chance to eliminate, one by one, the remaining contenders for the West Coast Conference regular season title.

Step one was accomplished at the Marriott Center, as junior Makenzi Pulsipher scored 25 points and BYU (22-4, 14-1) eliminated Santa Clara (19-6, 10-4) with a 70-63 victory.

"We didn't play our best this weekend, but we played good in spurts and that's what we needed," Cougars coach Jeff Judkins said. "We win one more (against San Diego) and we're the champions."

In a game where senior Lexi Rydalch struggled, Pulsipher provided key backcourt scoring against a Broncos zone defense that was physical in keeping tabs on BYU's perimeter players.

"She's a tough kid. She's a badger or a wolverine, those are the toughest animals," said Judkins of Pulsipher. "She had a hard matchup with (Lori) Parkinson, because they're trying to post her up all the time. She had a great effort."

Parkinson, from Cyprus High, scored 16 points to lead the Broncos. A junior who played for coach JR Payne at Southern Utah before Payne moved on to Santa Clara, Parkinson was part of the physical presence that limited Rydalch to 12 points.

"We're not the best team in the world, but we're long alot of times. So if we can move our feet fast enough to keep up with people, we can contest shots," Payne said. "If we can contest shots with (Lexi), at least it makes it a little more challenging."

Santa Clara trimmed the Cougars' lead to 31-29 when Marie Bertholdt scored the first bucket of the second half. But Pulsipher then drained a 3-pointer and Rydalch drove into the lane for a bank shot with 8:44 left in the third, which was followed by a turnover and a layup by Kalani Purcell six seconds later.

"We went from 2 (down) to nine in about a minute-and-a-half and it's hard to come back on the number one team in the league on their homecourt," Payne said. "I thought that kind of did us in."

Purcell had 17 points and yanked down 20 rebounds for the Cougars.

BYU will host San Diego on Thursday and a win would eliminate the Toreros, the only team with a conference win over the Cougars this season.

"We're one game closer to winning a championship and that's what we're after," Purcell said.

— Eric Butler

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Utah Valley 72, Cal State Bakersfield 53 • In Orem, six Wolverines scored in double-digits and Utah Valley (12-13, 5-5 Western Athletic Conference) shot a season-high 56.8 percent from the field in the rout of the Rodrunners (8-17, 5-5).

Patrice Toston led the way with 14 points, Georgia Agnew scored 13, Mariah Seals scored 12, Deijah Blanks tallied 11 and Rebecca MaWhinney and Sam Loggins each had 10 points.

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Men's basketball

Montana State 80, Southern Utah 73 • In Bozeman, Mont., Tyler Hall scored 14 points, leading a balanced scoring attack as the Bobcats beat the Thunderbirds.

Southern Utah (4-19, 2-11 Big Sky) trailed by 12 points with 3:51 remaining but rallied to within 73-70 as Montana State (12-13, 7-6) missed seven free throws, committed four fouls and had two turnovers over the next two minutes.

James McGee and Christian Thompson missed 3-point attempts in the final 13 seconds as Southern Utah lost its eighth straight contest.

John Marshall had 21 points and six rebounds for the Thunderbirds.

Baseball

Dixie State 5, Northwest Nazarene 0 • In St. George, sophomore Aaron Pope (2-0) allowed just two hits in 71⁄3 innings and juniors Drew McLaughlin and Jerome Hill II each hit home runs as the Storm (7-0) shut out the Crusaders (2-3) at Bruce Hurst Field.

Men's volleyball

No. 3 BYU 3, NJIT 0 • In Newark, New Jersey, Tim Dobbert had 12 kills, nine blocks and seven digs to lead the third-ranked Cougars (10-2) to a 25-22, 25-19, 25-19 sweep of NJIT (0-8).

Softball

BYU earns split at Kajikawa Classic • In Tempe, Ariz., the Cougars (3-2) shut out Creighton 4-0 before falling to No. 24 Notre Dame 4-2 in extra innings. Lexi Tarrow had two RBI against Creighton (1-4), and Madison Merrell had two RBI in the eight-inning loss to Notre Dame (2-1).

Utah State splits at Kajikawa Classic • In Tempe, Ariz., the Aggies (1-4) lost to Indiana 5-2 and defeated Bradley 6-2. Victoria Saucedo homered and drove in four runs in the victory, and pitcher April Brown (1-1) allowed nine hits and two runs in six innings while striking out three.

Southern Utah drops two at Hillenbrand Invitational • In Tucson, Ariz., the Thunderbirds s fell to 0-5, dropping a 6-5 decision to North Texas after falling to UC Santa Barbara 10-1. Kylee Wolf had a leadoff homer for the Thunderbirds in the loss to the Mean Green.

Women's swimming and diving

Washington State 149, Utah 145 • Gillian St. John and Dorien Butter tied for first place in the 100 freestyle (52.01 seconds), St. John was part of the winning 200 medley relay (1:52.98) and Butter was on the winning 400 free relay (3:28.17), but the Utes were edged out by the visiting Cougars.

Women's tennis

Iowa State 6, Utah State 1 • In Logan, Maggie O'Meara had a 6-1, 6-3 victory in singles for the Aggies (2-4) who lost their third match in a row.

Men's lacrosse

Westminster 18, Notre Dame de Namur 10 • In Belmont, Calif., the Griffins built a 15-2 halftime lead and held off the Argonauts in the season opener for each team. Westminster's Thomas Sarjeant tied a school record with seven assists.