102 Points Advance Cougars In WNIT

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PROVO, Utah -- With a season-high 102 points, the BYU women's basketball team advances to the third round of the WNIT as they defeated the Utah State Aggies, 102-63 at the Marriott Center on Saturday.

The Cougars finished with six players in double figures for the third time this season with Hailey Hall and Kim Parker leading the way on 19 points apiece. Hall also recorded her first career double-double with 11 assists to go along with her 19 points.

Joining Hall and Parker in double figures, Mindy Bonham contributed 11 points, Coriann Fraughton had 13, Jennifer Hamson scored 17 and Dani Peterson had 10 points.

"It’s nice when you win and when you score 102 points," said BYU head coach Jeff Judkins. "We had a lot of kids step up tonight having six kids in double-figures. I thought we had a lot of easy baskets tonight. They tried to trap us and our guards did a really good job tonight of feeding the post when it was open in that zone. I’m real happy for them. We haven’t seen that kind of defense this year."

Utah State led at 11-5 until an 8-0 run sparked the Cougars to take the lead at 14-13, with Parker contributing five of those eight points.

After supplying two points, two defensive rebounds and a steal for the Cougars, Kristen Riley took an elbow to the face that put her out for the rest of the half with nine minutes left.

The teams kept a close battle for the lead with scores of 19-20, 23-23 and 25-25.

Points from Hamson, Hall and Peterson pushed the Cougars to 32-26 before Hall sank two crucial free throws and a three-pointer with three minutes left to give the Cougars a nine-point lead over the Aggies at 37-28.

BYU continued through the half on a 10-5 run with both Bonham and Hall contributing three-pointers before heading into the locker room at the half, 47-33.

Major contributors of the first half include Hamson who provided 13 points and seven rebounds. Hall had 11 points, four rebounds and five assists while Bonham tallied nine points, five rebounds and two assists.

Hamson started the momentum of the second half with a jumper that put the Cougars up two. After free-throws by Utah State’s Banna Diop, Hall sank an early three to put the score at 52-34.

Peterson had two quick lay-ups to put the Cougars at 58-36. Back in the game after her injury in the first half, Riley also contributed a lay-up that extended BYU’s lead to 60-39.

At nine and a half minutes left in the game, Coriann Fraughton landed two free-throws to push BYU to a 70-51 lead. Hall later scored her fifth three-pointer, tying her season high and putting the score at 78-51.

Kim Parker supplied all the points for BYU’s 11-4 run on the Aggies with four minutes left in the half. Parker’s contributions put the Cougars at 98-60.

Riley sank two free-throws to seal BYU’s 102-63 victory over Utah State.

The Cougars play in the WNIT Third Round awaiting the winner of the USC at Nevada game. The two battle on Sunday in Nevada. The third round is slated to begin on Wed. Mar. 23.

Postgame Notes

Team

-The Cougars are now 23-1 when they lead at the half, 14-1 when they play in the Marriott Center, 18-2 when they outrebound their opponent and 6-0 when they shoot better than 50 percent.

-For just the third time this season, six players recorded double figure scoring for the Cougars. The first time to do so was against BYU Hawaii and the second was against Utah State in November.

-For the 12th time on the season, BYU scored over 70 points to improve their record to 12-0 when they do. For the sixth time on the season, they also scored more than 80 points for a perfect 6-0 record when doing so.

-Today’s 102 points is the second time this season they’ve finished with over 100 points. The points are also a season-high for the team.

-The BYU bench has outscored its opponents 727 to 416 thus far this season.

Player

-Jennifer Hamson finished the game with 17 points with 13 of her points coming in the first half for a season-high number of points to come in a first half. She finished just one rebound from a double-double.

-Mindy Bonham grabbed five rebounds in the first half against the Aggies to tie her season-high number of rebounds to come in a first half.

-Bonham finished with 11 points for her 22nd season double-figure point performance.

-Dani Peterson’s 10 points are her second season double-figure point performance.

-Coriann Fraughton finished with 13 points for her 24th double digit outing on the season.

-Haley Hall’s three first-half rebounds tied her season-high for number of rebounds to come in a first half.

-Hall recorded her first career double-double with 19 points and 11 assists which are season, team and game highs. The performance is her ninth time this season to record double-digit points. On her way to 19 points, Hall scored five 3-pointer to tie her season-high.

-Jazmine Foreman finished with a season-high 10 assists against the Aggies.

-Kim Parker finished with 19 points for a new season-and career-high. The points are also her fifth time this season to record double digits.

Postgame Quotes

BYU Coach Jeff Judkins

"It’s nice when you win and when you score 102 points. We had a lot of kids step up tonight having six kids in double-figures. I thought we had a lot of easy baskets tonight. They tried to trap us and our guards did a really good job tonight of feeding the post when it was open in that zone. I’m real happy for them. We haven’t seen that kind of defense this year. It was a great performance."

"I told Dani Peterson the other day that we wouldn’t have won the conference without her. Tonight she played a big part with Jennifer Hamson and Coriann Fraughton in foul trouble and Kristen Riley injured. She did a really good job in the first half and kept it solid for us."

"These young ladies are just a joy to coach. I think they go out there and play because they love the game of basketball. We’d like to go to the NCAA tournament, but they love basketball and they like to play together. I told them maybe we’d take Monday off and they said they didn’t want to take Monday off – they wanted to practice. As a coach it couldn’t be any better."

"They want to win this. When we got ousted out of the NCAA we got together and they said they wanted to win the NIT."