Feb. 6, 2010
Box Score
PROVO, Utah - BYU connected on 10 of its first 20 three-point shots and broke open a tied game with a 17-2 second half run to post a 76-60 win over UNLV in Mountain West Conference women's basketball action on Saturday afternoon from the Marriott Center. The loss dropped the Lady Rebels to 10-13 on the season, 3-6 in league play, while the Cougars improved to 15-6, 6-3 in the MWC.
Erica Helms hit three treys in the first four minutes of the second half, while Kelli Thompson made one of two at the line at the 15:37 mark to tie the game at 40-40. That came after BYU had opened the second half with a three-pointer for a six-point edge. Following Thompson's free throw, the Cougars went on a scoring burst with 13 straight points over a two-minute stretch that included three treys from three different players. That was part of a 17-2 overall spurt over a four-minute span, with Mindy Bonham's jumper at the 10:38 mark making the score 57-42. The closest UNLV would come the rest of the game was 13 twice, the second on a Helms' jumper to make the score 59-46 with 9:28 on the clock.
UNLV opened the game with five quick points, before BYU answered back with a 7-0 spurt. The Lady Rebels then started the push the ball inside, and Markiell Styles converted two straight three-point plays to put UNLV up 19-12 with 10:59 to play in the first half.
The lead stood at 21-14 when BYU found its touch from outside, hitting three straight treys to start a 14-2 run over a 4:18 stretch. Jazmine Foreman started the run with a trey, and finished it with another trey and two free throws to make it a 28-23 lead with 4:33 left in the first half. The lead was six when Kelli Thompson banked in an off-balanced shot at the halftime buzzer to make it a 33-30 game.
Helms led UNLV with 19 points, while Thompson added 14 and Sandrine Nzeukou and Styles both posted 10 each. Jamie Smith recorded seven points and a game-high 12 rebounds. The Lady Rebs shot 30% (18-of-60) for the game, was 6-of-26 from three-point range for 23.1%, and made 18-of-21 at the free throw line for 85.7%. UNLV held a 43-35 edge on the boards, and turned the ball over 16 times to 10 for the Cougars.
Haley Hall knocked down four treys on the way to her game-high 22 points for BYU. Bohham added 13 points while Foreman and Alexis Kaufusi both scored 11. The Cougars shot 48.4% (30-of-62) from the floor and was 11-of-25 from behind the arc for 44%.
UNLV will play a second straight game on the road on Wednesday, with a game in Albuquerque, N.M., against the New Mexico Lobos at 6 pm (PST).
