PROVO, Utah –The BYU women’s basketball combined red-hot shooting with stifling defense en route to a 80-47 thrashing of the LMU Lions on Thursday at the Marriott Center.

“It’s a good win. It’s nice to be able to get a lot of young kids in the game," coach Jeff Judkins said.

The Cougars (13-3, 2-1) shot 53 percent from the field while holding the Lions (4-11, 0-3) to just 34 percent.

To watch video click here

LMU jumped out to an early lead at 6-5, but it was all Cougars from that point on. Using an early 13-3 run, BYU turned the deficit into a 20-9 lead, highlighted by a deep three by guard Haley Steed.

Using a full-court press, the Cougars continued to pour on the pressure. Steed found teammates all over the court, connecting on back-to-back assists with Dani Peterson and Kristen Riley for easy layups.

Not to be outdone on the offensive side of the ball, the BYU defense was just as tenacious. The Lions struggled to find the basket and were held scoreless for almost eight minutes during the first half. Riley, Jennifer Hamson and true freshman Lexi Eaton brought the crowd to its feet with emphatic blocks in the half, denying the Lions any points and helping the Cougars jump out to a 48-22 halftime lead.

“I feel like we're all playing really well together, especially on defense,” Eaton said. “I felt like we got them out of their offense early.  We've been working really hard in practice and it's nice to see it transfer onto the court.”

Coming out of the break the Cougars started right where they left off with a quick 10 points, eight coming from Eaton.

Lockdown defense helped the Cougars put the game away for good as BYU pushed its lead to 41 points with 7:35 left.

Riley led the Cougars with 16 points and three rebounds and was aided by Steed, who added eight points and eight assists. Eaton added 14 points, 12 in the second half.

“We felt like we had certain mismatches and we took advantage of that in the game,” Judkins said.

The Cougars will head to San Francisco to take on the Dons at the War Memorial Gym on Saturday at 2 p.m. PST.

Postgame Notes

Team

BYU forced an almost eight-minute scoreless streak for LMU during the first half.

The Cougars shot 61.3 percent from the field and 54.5 percent from beyond the arc in the first half. BYU ended the game 52.4 percent from the field and 47.4 percent beyond the arc, holding the Lions to 32.7 percent shooting and 25 percent behind the 3-point line.

BYU had 10 assists in the first half and held the Lions to only two. BYU tallied 19 assists in the game and held LMU to five.

The Cougars drained nine 3-pointers and made 38 points in the paint.

The BYU bench put up 28 points to LMU’s 13.

BYU outrebounded its opponent for the 10th time this season, making 42 rebounds to LMU's 25.

The Cougars had the largest lead of the game at 7:35 with a lead of 41.

Players

Kristen Riley hit double figures in points before halftime and ended the game with 16 points and three rebounds.

Haley Steed led the team with eight assists and had eight points.

Lexi Eaton scored 14 points and had two assists.

Jennifer Hamson led the team in rebounds with seven and scored nine points.

FIRST WCC GAME AT HOME

With a (12-3, 1-1) record, the BYU women’s basketball team gets set to host its first ever West Coast Conference game in the Marriott Center. The Cougars host Loyola Marymount (4-10, 0-2) on Thursday, Jan. 5 in a 5 p.m. tip.  The game airs live worldwide on BYUtv.

2011-12 Stats Summary
- Shooting from field: (.431, 390-904)
- Shooting from three-point line: (.347, 100-288)
- Shooting from free-throw line: (.732, 205-280)
- Average points per game: 72.3
- Average rebounds per game: 40.3
- Average assists per game: 19.2
- Average steals per game: 10.7
- Average blocks per game: 5.7
- Average turnovers per game: 16.6

About BYU
-The Cougars leading scorer is sophomore guard Kim Parker who averages 12.1 points per game.
-Kristen Riley is at the top of the leaderboard in rebounds averaging 6.6 per game.
-Haley Steed leads the way in assists and steals with 96 and 36 respectively.
-Jennifer Hamson tops the list in blocks with 36.
-Hamson has the team’s best field goal percentage (.552, 32-58).
-True freshman Lexi Eaton has the team’s best free throw percentage (.875, 28-32).

THURSDAY OPPONENT
LOYOLA MARYMOUNT
LMU enters this second week of league action with a (4-10, 0-2) record and will be making its first ever trip to Provo and the Marriott Center. Alex Cowling, a 5-11 junior guard/forward combo leads the way in scoring for the Lions averaging 20.9 points per game while averaging a team best 9.3 rebounds and a total of 25 steals to date. In the assist category it’s 5-5 sophomore guard Hazel Ramirez who dishes out the most assists with 33. Loyola Marymount shoots 36 percent from the field, 71 percent at the charity stripe and 29 percent from beyond the arc while putting up 58.4 points per game. Head coach Julie Wilhoit has been with the Lions program for 17 seasons.

Series Breakdown
Overall Series Record: BYU leads the series 2-0
BYU Record in Provo: n/a
BYU Record in Los Angeles: n/a
BYU Record in Neutral Sites: 2-0
BYU Record under coach Judkins: n/a
BYU Record in Overtime Games: n/a

Last Meeting
These two new WCC teams met last during the 1999-2000 season when both teams were competing in the Jayhawk Classic in Kansas.

What’s Next
After the home game against LMU, the Cougars go back on the road to northern California for a game at San Francisco on Sat. Jan. 7. They return to the Marriott Center on Jan. 12 to host WCC foe Pepperdine.