LAS -- Sophomores Dave Jensen and Scott Koffman led BYU to its first Mountain West Conference victory Monday with a 12-5 victory over UNLV.

Jensen, a Las Vegas native, hit three doubles and a home run, and Koffman picked up his second victory of the season allowing only one hit through six innings and holding the Rebels to only three hits over seven.

The Cougars recorded their first conference win of the season with out Head Coach Vance Law in the dugout, who missed the game due to flu-like symptoms.

Cougar hitters Cameron Coughlan, Rob Itri, and Ranger Wiens also turned in strong hitting performances as BYU recorded 13 hits to UNLV's seven.

BYU got on the board early after Matt Carson's ground out to third scored Coughlan who reached base on an infield single.

Rob Itri's fifth-inning at bat turned into an unearned inside-the-park home run for the Cougars after multiple errors by the Rebels.

The Cougars broke the game open in the sixth after Jensen led the inning off with his second double of the game and Wiens bunt single knocked him home.

Coughlan's third hit of the game to right scored two runs, and Itri's double through the right side of the infield led to two more runs in the sixth making the score 10-1.

BYU added runs in the seventh and eighth and held off a late rally by UNLV to improve its season record to 6-11.

UNLV, 10-11, hosts the Cougars Tuesday at 4 p.m. (MST), and that game can be heard live locally on KOVO (960 AM), while the nightcap will be broadcast on the Internet.

BYU at UNLV
               Mar 11, 2002 at Las Vegas, NV (E. Wilson Stadium)
BYU 12 (6-11,1-0 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
JACKSON, Doug cf.........  4  1  0  1   1  1  4  0   3
COUGHLAN, Cameron lf.....  4  3  3  2   1  1  2  1   0
CARSON, Matt rf..........  5  0  0  1   0  1  2  0   0
ITRI, Rob 2b.............  5  1  2  2   0  0  1  5   0
 YI, Han 2b..............  0  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   0
STUBBLEFIELD, Jake 3b....  5  1  0  0   0  1  0  4   2
JENSEN, Dave 1b..........  5  3  4  1   0  0 10  0   0
WEINGARTEN, Mike c.......  3  1  0  1   0  1  4  0   0
 WILKES, Adam c..........  1  0  1  1   0  0  2  0   0
BILLS, Kevin dh..........  4  0  0  0   0  2  0  0   0
WIENS, Ranger ss.........  4  2  3  1   0  1  1  1   0
 THURGOOD, Ryan ph/ss....  1  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   1
KOFFMAN, Scott p.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  1   0
 GARCIA, Jason p.........  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 41 12 13 10   2  8 27 13   6
UNLV 5 (10-11,0-1 MWC)
Player                    AB  R  H RBI BB SO PO  A LOB
------------------------------------------------------
SHITANISHI 2b............  4  1  1  1   1  0  2  3   2
JOHNSON cf...............  4  0  1  1   0  0  0  0   1
TRUJILLO dh..............  3  0  0  0   0  1  0  0   0
 HAFIZ dh................  1  1  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
NIELSEN 1b...............  3  0  0  0   0  0 10  0   0
 GOLDBERG 1b.............  1  0  0  0   0  1  3  0   0
VANKIRK c................  2  1  1  0   0  0  4  2   0
 NEPA c..................  1  0  1  1   0  0  3  0   0
RUIZ ss..................  3  1  1  0   1  0  3  6   0
SCHULER 3b...............  3  0  1  0   0  0  0  3   0
AMUNDSEN lf..............  2  0  0  0   0  0  1  0   2
 HERTEL ph/rf............  2  0  1  2   0  0  0  0   0
REUSS rf.................  3  0  0  0   0  1  1  0   0
 WICKMAN, Jo lf..........  0  1  0  0   1  0  0  0   0
HALL p...................  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
 WATTS p.................  0  0  0  0   0  0  0  0   0
Totals................... 32  5  7  5   3  3 27 14   6
Score by Innings                    R  H  E
-------------------------------------------
BYU................. 110 035 101 - 12 13  2
UNLV................ 001 000 211 -  5  7  5
-------------------------------------------
E - JACKSON; KOFFMAN; RUIZ; SCHULER; AMUNDSEN; REUSS; HALL. DP - Rebels 1.
LOB - Cougars 6; Rebels 6. 2B - ITRI; JENSEN 3; WILKES; SHITANISHI. 3B -
WIENS. HR - JENSEN. HBP - BILLS; VANKIRK; SCHULER. SF - WEINGARTEN; JOHNSON.
SB - COUGHLAN. CS - ITRI.
BYU                    IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
KOFFMAN, Scott......  7.0  3  3  2  2  2 23 28
GARCIA, Jason.......  2.0  4  2  2  1  1  9 10
UNLV                   IP  H  R ER BB SO AB BF
-----------------------------------------------
HALL................  5.2  9 10  4  2  5 28 31
WATTS...............  3.1  4  2  2  0  3 13 14
Win - KOFFMAN (2-2).  Loss - HALL (0-4).  Save - None.
WP - KOFFMAN. HBP - by KOFFMAN (VANKIRK); by WATTS (BILLS); by KOFFMAN
(SCHULER). BK - GARCIA 2.
Umpires - HP: Kelly Gonzales  1B: Keith Bailey  3B: Ray Belfiore
Start: 6:40 pm   Time: 2:54   Attendance: 478

First pitch in the Mountain West Conference opener will be thrown by BYU as it starts a three-game series Monday at UNLV.

The rest of the six-team league starts on the weekend. The Cougars begin their defense of the MWC title, then conclude in Provo in May with the conference tournament.

BYU, 5-11, has rested over a week after returning from Hawaii and has been able to practice outdoors for the first time since November in Provo.

"We hope to start off on the right foot after having a good series in Hawaii," said BYU Coach Vance Law. "We were just starting to play well as a team. Hopefully we'll be able to turn around and start winning some of our close games."

Starting on the mound for Monday evening's game at UNLV will be Scott Koffman (1-2, 6.75). In Tuesday's split doubleheader, Jeff Mousser (2-1, 3.20) will start the afternoon game and Ryan Adams (0-3, 7.89) will start the nightcap.

"We used this time off to catch up in class, took time to run drills in practice and heal from injuries," said Law.

At least one injury, however, is forcing Law to make a couple of defensive changes. At third base will be transfer Jack Stubblefield and at second will be returned missionary Rob Itri.

Stubblefield is subbing for injured Kainoa Obrey, a pre-season All American who is hopeful his injured back will land him a medical hardship redshirt at the end of the season.

Matt Carson continues to lead the team with a .410 batting average. He also leads the team in hits, triples, home runs, RBI and being hit by pitches. He has recorded four assists from his position in right field.

UNLV had a 9-8 record prior to a four-game weekend series at Arizona State in a tournament which also featured St. John's and Oklahoma State.

Following the UNLV series, BYU will bus home for a day in class before flying to the University of Washington for a three-game non-conference series.

Monday's UNLV game (7:30 p.m. MST) will be broadcast live locally on KOVO Radio (960 AM) to start the first of several MWC games with veteran Cougar announcer Brent Norton. KOVO will also broadcast Tuesday's 3 p.m. MST game. Fans can listen to the evening games on Monday and Tuesday also on the Internet at http://unlvrebels.fansonly.com/sports/m-basebl/unlv-m-basebl-sched.html.