Cougar women open season with win

PROVO ? Even after watching their offense fizzle to a complete halt for eight minutes in the second half, the BYU women's basketball team still rang up a 73-51 victory over Utah Valley University in the Cougars' 2009-10 home opener. Coach Jeff Judkins was pleased by the performance of his team, which racked up 26 offensive rebounds on the Wolverines, the most the Cougars have ever had in Judkins' era. "We have a lot of size and our bigs are really active. Those guys can really bang it in there pretty good," said Judkins, who also was happy with the way his team's full-court press. "I think that the press is really going to help our game this year with creating turnovers," said Kailani Moeaki. The team maintained the full-court press throughout and proved it was also deep, with 14 players seeing playing time. BYU had four players in double figures, with Moeaki and Mindy Nielson leading the way with 14 apiece. Coriann Wood and Dani Peterson each added 10 for the Cougars. Haley Hall started her comeback from yet another ACL tear with eight assists and two steals. "We've got a team that can score some points this year, where last year we struggled," said Judkins. The Cougars' largest lead was by 33 points, and they outscored UVU in the paint 28-12. The Cougars finished with 26 points off turnovers to the Wolverines' six. UVU's Julie Smith tallied 20 points, and freshman Kaycee Mansfield finished with eight. Utah State 67, Utah 58: At Logan, the Utah women's basketball team could not overcome a strong Utah State start, falling in their season opener to the Aggies. Kalee Whipple led Utah with 21 points while Taryn Wicijowski, who earned her first career start, was also in double figures with 12 points. Halie Sawyer pulled down a team-high 13 rebounds for the Utes. The Aggies came out firing on all cylinders, taking a 13-point lead, 18-5, through the first six minutes of the first half. They took as much as a 22-point lead in the half and led 44-27 at halftime behind 62.1 percent shooting, led by 16 points from Amber White. Whipple had 14 points for the Utes in the half. Utah battled back in the second half, outscoring Utah State 31-23 and coming within eight points as the minutes ticked off. The Utes held the Aggies to just two points in a six-minute stretch and cut the lead to 10 points, 59-49, with five minutes remaining, but Utah State was able to hold onto its lead the rest of the way. SLCC 94, CENTRAL Arizona 79: At Twin Falls, Idaho, the Salt Lake Community College team exploded for a win over No. 1-ranked Central Arizona. The Bruins held a 12-point lead at halftime and continued the hot shooting in the second half, sinking 74 percent of their shots to hold off any run by Central Arizona. Five players reached double figures for Salt Lake, including two players finishing with a double-double. Freshman Haley Holmstead finished with a season-high 33 points, one point shy of the school record 34 points. Holmstead connected on 10 of 16 shots and went 13 of 16 from the free-throw line. Sheila Adams finished with 12 points, hitting on 4-of-9 3-pointers. Sophomores Dayna Burgess and Kelsey Sparkman both ended the game with double-doubles. Burgess scored 16 points and dished out 10 assists. Sparkman grabbed 11 boards to go along with 13 points. WESTMINSTER 93, COLLEGE OF Idaho 91: McKenzie Jessop sank two free throws with 6.8 seconds remaining to give the Westminster women's basketball team a win over the College of Idaho on Friday night. Westminster (3-1) trailed for much of the night, and Jessop's freebies gave the Griffins their first lead since the 18:35 mark of the second half. The two point win is the first single-digit win since a seven point victory over Montana Western last February. The College of Idaho (1-1) led by as many as eight in the second half, including with 3:07 to play in the game. Westminster outscored the Yotes 11-1 during the final three minutes, thanks to a 3-pointer apiece from Dani Evans, Keshia Catten, and Jessop. Jessop then grabbed a Marqu Gilliam-Hicks miss and was fouled trying to break the press with 6.8 remaining. Gilliam-Hicks got a good look from the right elbow at the buzzer, but it rimmed off to seal the Griffins victory. e-mail: jolsen@desnews.com