SALT LAKE CITY -- With the seconds winding down, the BYU women’s basketball team (18-7, 10-1) made a huge defensive stop to keep instate rival Utah from making a comeback as the Cougars went on to win 61-58, Saturday.

With the win, BYU takes the women's basketball Deseret Duel series for the second-straight year and stays in first place in the Mountain West Conference standings.

"We didn't shoot from the free throw line very well today," said BYU head coach Jeff Judkins. "I told the girls that sometimes you're going to get ones that aren't very pretty and I guess tonight was one of those. It was definitely a great effort though by Coriann, offensively, especially in the second half and Mindy had another solid game."

Senior Coriann Fraughton led the Cougars with 20 points to tie her season-high. Fraughton also added eight rebounds and two steals to the winning effort.

With just 41 seconds to play, BYU prevented an attempted comeback as the Utes made a three-pointer to bring them within three of the Cougars. As time wound down, BYU held off any more attempts by Utah to keep the 3-point victory in their possession.

To begin the game, Jazmine Foreman sparked a 6-0 run for the Cougars after four minutes of play with a jumper to put BYU on top by one. From there, the Cougars would keep the lead until half. Senior Mindy Bonham had already recorded double figures with 11 points for BYU when the teams left for halftime and she finished with 14.

BYU’s Jennifer Hamson scored the first four points of the second half to give the Cougars an eight-point lead. Fraughton joined Bonham’s double figures in the second half, finishing with 20 points after scoring 17 in the second half of action.

The Cougars will return home one week from today on Saturday, Feb. 19, when they take on TCU in the Marriott Center at noon MT.

Postgame Notes

Team

-BYU improved to 17-1 on the season when leading at the half. Heading into the break the Cougars were up 28-23.

-The team made five three pointers in the winning effort improving its record to 15-4 when they put up at least five treys in a game.

-BYU finished the game with 13 turnovers extending its record to 15-1 when having less than 16 miscues in a contest.

-The Cougars are now 17-1 when they lead at the half, 15-4 when they make five or more 3-pointers, 15-1 when they record less than 16 turnovers and 6-5 when they play on the road.

Player

-Mindy tallied 14 points recording the 17th double figure contest on the season, the 57th career and seventh in MWC action.

-Coriann Fraughton led the BYU effort with 20 points and eight rebounds for her 18th season, 45th career and the sixth straight double digit outing in league play.

-Kristen Riley dished out four assists to tie her season and career in that category. Teammate Haley Hall also recorded four assists to tie for team and game highs.

-Kim Parker tied her season and career high in steals with two.

Riding a six-game win streak and in first place in the MWC standings with a (17-7, 9-1), the Cougar women continue league play this Sat Feb. 12.

BYU makes a short trip north to instate rival Utah (12-12, 5-5) for a matchup that tips off at 4 p.m., from the Huntsman Center.

The contest at Utah airs live on CBS C., and can also be heard live on the Internet on BYU Radio.

DESERET FIRST DUEL

The Deseret First Duel was first introduced in 2007 as a rivalry series between BYU and Utah that includes competition in the 12 sports the two universities compete head-to-head with during regular-season play. Entering this week, the standings have the teams tied 16-16. A win in Salt Lake City would give BYU five points and the trophy for women’s basketball for the 2010-11 campaign. The Cougar women’s team also won the trophy last season.

2010-11 STATS SUMMARY

- Shooting from field: (.433, 651-1503)

- Shooting from three-point line: (.326, 174-533)

- Shooting from free-throw line: (.653, 218-334)

- Average points per game: 70.6

- Average rebounds per game: 39.8

- Average assists per game: 20.3

- Average steals per game: 8.8

- Average blocks per game: 4.0

- Average turnovers per game: 14.4

ABOUT BYU

-The Cougars are led in scoring by senior guard Mindy Bonham who averages 12.2 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. Senior forward Coriann Fraughton follows averaging 11.0 points and a team high 7.2 rebounds per contest.

-Bonham also tops the list in assists with a total of 128. She also has the team’s best free throw percentage at .766, 36-47.

-Haley Hall has the most steals on the team with 50.

-Freshman center Jennifer Hamson is tops in the field goal percentage category at .640, 64-100.

-The BYU bench has outscored its opponents 568 to 353 as of 2/10/11. The most points scored by the Cougar bench to date are 44 in the win over BYU-Hawaii on 12/3/10. The most bench points from an opponent on the year are 31 recorded by BYU-Hawaii.

-BYU’s reserves are outrebounding their opponents 358 to 256 as of 2/10/11. The most rebounds by the Cougar bench are 28 vs. Utah State on 11/23/10. The most boards by the opponent bench are Utah State with 24.

RECORD WATCHING

-BYU head coach Jeff Judkins has compiled an 197-106 record as of Feb. 10 and is three wins away from picking up his 200th career victory.

-Mindy Bonham has tallying a total of 1,173 points as of 2/10/11, which puts her in 16th place out of 20 on BYU’s 1,000-Points Club. She needs 112 points to tie for 15th place with Ambrosia Anderson’s 1,285 career points.

-Bonham has dished out a grand total of 426 career assists as of 2/10/11, which puts her in sixth place all time. She’s six assists away from tying for fifth place with current assistant coach Stacy Jensen’s 432.

-In the steals category, Bonham has a career total of 215 as of 2/10/11, placing her in seventh place all time and needs 14 to tie for sixth place with Karina Zapata’s career total of 229.

-Jazmine Foreman dished out five assists in the home win over Air Force on 2/9/11, which gives her a career total of 387 and puts her in sixth place all-time. She needs 45 to tie for fifth place with current assistant coach Stacy Jensen’s career total of 432.

-In BYU’s number of games played category, Bonham and Foreman have played in a total of 115 games as of 2/9/11, which places the two tied for 13th place all time with Cindy Battistone and Nikki Eyre. They need to play in five more games to tie for 11th place with Ambrosia Anderson’s total of 120 games. Coriann Fraughton follows closely behind with a total of 113 games. She’s tied with King’s 113 for 14th place all time.

2010-11 HONORS

-Mindy Bonham - MWC Co-Player of the Week (Jan. 29, 2011)

-Coriann Fraughton - - Hilton-Concord Thanksgiving Classic, All-Tournament Team

-Kristen Riley - Hilton-Concord Thanksgiving Classic, All-Tournament Team

PLAYER UPDATES/INJURIES

Freshmen Morgan Bailey and Stephanie Rovetti will redshirt the 2010-11 season.

Teammate Alexis Kaufusi will not finish the rest of this season after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma this week.

ABOUT NEXT MWC OPPONENT

UTAH

Utah is in fifth place in the most recent MWC standings with a (12-12, 5-5) record. Sophomore guard Iwalani Rodrigues leads the offense for the Utes averaging 14.4 points and 3.1 boards a game. She’s followed by Michelle Plouffe who contributes 13.4 points and a team high 7.5 rebounds per contest. Rounding out the double figure scoring is Janita Badon who tallies 12.5 points and grabs 6.0 boards a game. Badon also leads the way in the assists and steals categories for Utah with 139 and 64 respectively. The interim head coach for Utah is Anthony Levrets.

Series History

Overall Series Record: Utah leads 60-36

BYU Record in Provo: 18-21

BYU Record in Salt Lake City: 9-30

BYU Record in Neutral Sites: 9-9

BYU Record under Jeff Judkins: 9-13

Last Meeting – in Provo on Jan. 12, 2011 (BYU won 68-50)

A season-high 1,327 fans were in attendance to watch the BYU women’s basketball team take down conference rival Utah 68-50.

Haley Hall guided the Cougars (11-6, 3-0) to victory in the second half, scoring all of her 16 points after halftime. Jennifer Hamson and Mindy Bonham also hit double figures with 10 points each. Coriann Fraughton grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds, tying as a game-high.

Full-court pressure from BYU did its job, running the shot clock out for the Utes and leading to four steals in the first half. The Cougars scored 10 points off the turnovers.

BYU kept at least a five-point lead for most of the half, but with four minutes left, Utah’s Chelsea Bridgewater put in a layup to bring the score to 25-24. Dani Peterson scored four to end the half with a 29-26 Cougar lead.

No one scored for the first three minutes of the second half until Michelle Plouffe laid the ball in for the Utes (9-8, 2-1). Utah free throws tied the game, but a layup from Hamson pushed the Cougars ahead with 15 minutes left to play.

Redshirt freshman Kim Parker hit a key three-pointer with 12 minutes to play, giving the Cougars a seven-point lead. Kristen Riley pushed that lead to 10 at the seven minute mark.

WHAT’S NEXT

After the league game against instate rival Utah, the women’s basketball team continues league action at home on Sat. Feb. 19 when TCU comes to the Marriott Center. Tip off for the game is 1 p.m. Then BYU takes to the road once again for a matchup in Ft. Collins with Colorado State on Feb. 23, before returning home to host San Diego State on Feb. 26.