BYU women's basketball: Cold Cougars optimistic about tourney

Though the BYU women's basketball team is seeded a lowly sixth, and though the Cougars have lost five of their last seven games, coach Jeff Judkins is optimistic about his team's chances in the Mountain West Conference Tournament.

BYU (18-10, 8-8) takes on No. 7 seed UNLV (12-17, 5-11) tonight (8 p.m.) in the first round of the tournament. Tonight's winner faces No. 3 TCU Wednesday.

"We would like to go down, play really well and cause some damage," Judkins said. "If we play well enough, we could win the tournament. I think we're deep enough and good enough that if we play our best basketball, we could win it. We've had some moments where we showed that we could be very good. Hopefully we can do that in this tournament, where everything comes together. We really have nothing to lose and everything to gain. We just need to come out and play well."

The Cougars swept the regular-season series from the Rebels, including a 67-62 victory in Las Vegas on Jan. 21. In that contest, center Cassie King recorded a career-high 19 points and 13 rebounds, marking her first-ever double-double.

The Cougars won again on Feb. 21 in Provo, where the Rebels rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit. But King's rebound and putback with 1.7 seconds remaining gave the Cougars a dramatic 53-52 triumph.

"Cassie's played very well against (UNLV). She does a good job inside," Judkins said. "I think she'll have more success if she plays the same way. The last few games, she's been really aggressive. She's finishing a lot better. Hopefully she can keep doing that."

The Rebels, who are coming off a 57-46 loss at San Diego State, are in their first year under coach Kathy Olivier. UNLV has dropped three out of its last five games.

Senior center Shamela Hampton leads the team in scoring, averaging 14.1 points, to go along with 8.4 rebounds per outing.

"Hampton's a really good player inside. We need to do a good job guarding her," Judkins said. "They're a very quick team at every position. They're one of the best offensive rebounding teams in our league. If we can keep them off the glass and not give them a lot of second shots, it should be to our advantage."

UNLV likes to change up its defenses between man-to-man and zone, which has given BYU problems this season. In the Cougars' win in Provo, they played well in the first half when the Rebels were playing man-to-man, but struggled when UNLV switched to a zone, Judkins said.