TEMPE -- The BYU women’s basketball team (22-9) will advance to the third round of the 2010 WNIT after a 61-53 victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils, Tuesday.
"This is a really good win for us," said BYU head coach Jeff Judkins. "Arizona State is a very good team in a very good conference. It was a great team effort, both offensively and defensively, and the girls executed well down the stretch."
With 1:50 to play in the game, junior Coriann Wood hit an open three-pointer to put the Cougars up by six and seal the deal for the team to advance them to the next round of the WNIT. Wood finished the game with seven points and eight rebounds as well as recording season-and career-highs in both steals and blocks with three each.
Jazmine Foreman led all scorers with 17 points, her 13th game this season to record double figures. She also added four assists to the winning effort.
Teammate Haley Hall recorded 14 points, her second straight game to score in double digits, with Kristen Riley adding 10 points, her 12th time to record double figures this year. Hall also recorded seven steals for a new season- and career-high. The Cougar team has now had at least two players record double-digits in every game this season, but three.
The Cougars started the game with a 6-0 lead after back-to-back treys while the Sun Devils didn’t record their first points until the 17:30 mark in the first half.
BYU headed into the locker room with a 31-23 advantage after leading for the entire first half and improved to 20-2 on the season when they lead the game at halftime.
The second half saw an evenly matched game with both teams scoring 30 points but the Cougars took the win thanks to their first half lead. In the game, BYU outshot the Sun Devils 48.9 to 35.6 percent from the field and 38.5 to 20 percent from beyond the arch. The Sun Devils outrebounded the Cougars 43-26 giving BYU a 6-4 record this season when their opponent outrebounds them.
Head coach Jeff Judkins now holds a 10-6 overall record against Pac-10 teams and is 1-1 this year.
The Cougars will next play Mountain West Conference foe Wyoming in Round 3 of the WNIT at 7 p.m. in Wyoming on Thursday, March 25. The Cowgirls advanced with a 68-57 overtime win against Texas Tech.