Cougars Win Despite Poor Shooting Night

PROVO -- Despite shooting 41 percent from the field, the BYU women's basketball team (14-4, 5-0 MWC) was able to hold off the UNLV Lady Rebels with a 64-59 win Saturday in the Marriott Center.

BYU's Mallary Gillespie started the Cougars off strong scoring the game's first six points hitting two three-pointers in the first three and-a-half minutes of play. The Cougars were unable to feed off of Gillespie's hot shooting by going on an offensive scoring drought. BYU failed to score from 17:37 until the 10:21 mark in the first half.

The scoring drought was broken by an Ashley Chessman jump shot that gave BYU an eight to six lead. Chessman broke the drought the team began to pick up the offensive pace and caused UNLV to commit 10 turnovers, scoring on six of them.

After missed open shots, free-throws and committing eight first half fouls UNLV capitalized on the Cougars mistakes and shot 85 percent from the free-throw line to cut the BYU lead to 25-21.

"We had a 21-12 lead going into halftime, " said BYU Head Coach Jeff Judkins. "But we kind of messed around and gave them momentum going into halftime."

Gillespie led the Cougars with nine first half points and Chessman had eight points off the bench.

BYU opened the second half hitting three straight three-pointers, two by Jennie Keele and one by Gillespie, to take a 34-25 lead. Cougar fouls and poor shooting led to a UNLV run cutting the BYU lead to 36-31 when Melinda Johnsen hit another three-pointer to bring the score to 39-31. Post player Lauren Riley scored six consecutive points to keep the Cougars lead at five, 49-44, after another UNLV run. After trading baskets, Gillespie hit her fifth three-pointer of the night to bring the lead to nine with the score 55-46 with 3:08 left.

Despite poor free-throw shooting and rebounding BYU continued to keep the lead despite a UNLV run that cut the Cougar lead to six with 22 seconds left. UNLV then hit two free throws to cut the lead to 63-59 with 14 seconds left. After Dani Kubik-Wright hit one of two free throws, making the score 64-59, Riley stole the ball on the ensuing UNLV possession and quickly handed it to Johnsen who was immediately fouled. Johnsen missed both of her free throws and UNLV rebounded the ball with four seconds left and dribbled down court but came up short when time ran out.

I'm happy with our win," said Coach Judkins. "We played well in spurts and I'm happy we won but disappointed with some of the other things that happened today."

BYU shot 41percent from the field for the game and 45 percent from the free throw line.

"We are definitely going to practice our free throw shooting," said Mallary Gillespie. "It's a lot of mental stuff. That's what happened tonight. The first couple of people missed and the next people were unsure when we went to the line."

Gillespie led BYU with 17 points all of them coming from either the three-point line or the foul line. Riley led BYU with 10 rebounds.

The team travels to San Diego State next Thursday January 25, to play the Aztecs at 7 p.m., and then on to Salt Lake City on January 27, to play the University of Utah Utes at 1 p.m.

Official Basketball Box Score
UNLV Rebels vs BYU COUGARS
01-20-07 2:00 PM at MARRIOTT CTR, BYU, PROVO, UT
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VISITORS: UNLV Rebels 8-9;2-3
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
05 HALBERG, Brittany... *  3-6    0-1    2-2    0  4  4   4   8  2  4  0  0  29
12 HOLMES, Sequoia..... *  5-17   1-3    3-4    1  7  8   3  14  1  3  0  1  37
14 PACE, Latosha....... *  0-3    0-1    0-0    0  1  1   0   0  2  1  0  1   7
15 MULLER, Faye........ *  3-4    0-0    1-2    1  4  5   4   7  1  3  0  1  37
24 HAMPTON, Shamela.... *  6-9    0-0    5-7    3  5  8   5  17  1  1  2  1  33
03 SIMMONS, Kameca.....    3-5    1-1    4-4    0  3  3   1  11  2  3  0  0  30
11 HOLIDAY, Allison....    0-0    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  1  0  0   4
32 LEE, Kisha..........    1-5    0-0    0-0    1  2  3   2   2  2  2  0  1  20
35 STICKLER, Samantha..    0-1    0-0    0-0    0  0  0   0   0  0  0  0  0   3
   TEAM................                         2  2  4
   Totals..............   21-50   2-6   15-19   8 28 36  19  59 11 18  2  5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half:  7-23 30.4%   2nd Half: 14-27 51.9%   Game: 42.0%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  1-4  25.0%   2nd Half:  1-2  50.0%   Game: 33.3%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  6-7  85.7%   2nd Half:  9-12 75.0%   Game: 78.9%    1
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HOME TEAM: BYU COUGARS 14-4;5-0
                          TOT-FG  3-PT         REBOUNDS
## Player Name            FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF  TP  A TO BLK S MIN
35 JOHNSEN, Melinda.... f  2-5    1-4    3-8    0  3  3   3   8  7  4  0  4  39
52 RILEY, Lauren....... f  3-4    0-0    0-2    3  7 10   3   6  0  3  0  1  25
45 WRIGHT, Dani........ c  3-4    1-1    2-6    4  1  5   4   9  0  2  1  0  26
15 KEELE, Jennie....... g  3-10   2-6    0-0    0  3  3   4   8  5  1  0  1  29
30 GILLESPIE, Mallary.. g  5-16   5-14   2-2    0  0  0   2  17  4  0  0  1  36
05 CHEESMAN, Ashley....    4-6    0-1    0-0    0  3  3   0   8  0  0  0  1  13
32 SLADE, Shawnee......    3-11   0-3    2-4    1  3  4   1   8  1  1  0  0  27
54 KING, Cassie........    0-0    0-0    0-0    1  1  2   1   0  0  0  0  0   5
   TEAM................                         2  3  5
   Totals..............   23-56   9-29   9-22  11 24 35  18  64 17 11  1  8 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-32 34.4%   2nd Half: 12-24 50.0%   Game: 41.1%  DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half:  3-16 18.8%   2nd Half:  6-13 46.2%   Game: 31.0%   REBS
F Throw % 1st Half:  0-2   0.0%   2nd Half:  9-20 45.0%   Game: 40.9%    7
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Officials: RANDY CAMPBELL, MIKE PETTY, SCHEL BROWN
Technical fouls: UNLV Rebels-None. BYU COUGARS-None.
Attendance: 1072
Score by Periods                1st  2nd   Total
UNLV Rebels...................   21   38  -   59
BYU COUGARS...................   25   39  -   64
OFFICIAL FINAL