BYU women's basketball: Cougars' winning streak hits 9

PROVO — The BYU women's basketball team keeps on rolling.

The Cougars improved to 11-2 overall and extended their winning streak to nine games Saturday at the Marriott Center with a 61-43 victory over Colorado State in their Mountain West Conference opener.

"We all feel really confident right now," said BYU senior Shawnee Slade, who scored a game-high 16 points, grabbed seven rebounds, dished out five assists and had two steals in the win.

It was the Cougars' defense that spelled the difference, limiting the Rams to 26 percent shooting from the floor.

"This team's strength is defense," said BYU coach Jeff Judkins. "That's why we're 11-2. We're not burning up the stats offensively, but we play good defense. Our defense is way ahead of our offense right now."

After a sluggish first half, which saw the Cougars shoot 31 percent and the Rams shoot 22 percent, BYU held a narrow 23-20 lead at intermission.

"Everyone was playing timid in the first half," Slade explained.

Judkins said his team's long layoff — playing only twice over a two-week period — negatively affected his team in the first half.

In the second half, the Cougars played much better offensively, shooting 46 percent. During one stretch early in the second half, Keilani Moeaki scored seven points in a row for BYU, including a 3-pointer, after hitting just one of seven shots in the first half. She finished with 10 points and five rebounds.

"Keilani came in and played like she practices," Judkins said.

Over the final 20 minutes, the Cougars shot 46 percent and outscored CSU, 38-23.

With 16 minutes left in the game, the Rams' Bonnie Barbee drained a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 29-28. But then BYU took control of the contest with a 23-9 spurt that lifted the Cougars to a commanding 52-37 lead with six minutes remaining.

BYU knocked down 4-of-9 3-point attempts in the second half.

Barbee and Britney Minor each scored a team-high 14 points for CSU, while Kim Mestdagh added nine.

For the Cougars, Coriann Wood came off the bench to score nine, while Jazmine Foreman and Cassie King chipped in seven and six points, respectively.

With the loss, the Rams fell to 5-10 overall and 0-2 in the MWC.

BYU continues conference play Tuesday with a trip to TCU.

"Hopefully we can take care of business at TCU," Judkins said.

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E-mail: jeffc@desnews.com