BYU women's basketball: Cougars take care of UNLV in opener

LAS VEGAS — The BYU women's basketball team is now 1-0 in the Mountain West Conference after a 71-61 victory, its fifth straight, over the UNLV Rebels on Wednesday.

"I thought we had a really good first half," said head coach Jeff Judkins. "We came in when we had to make the big shots and made them."

The Cougars took an early 13-7 lead with 16:52 to play in the first half after back-to-back three pointers from Haley Hall and Jazmine Foreman.

Hall finished the game with eight points and six assists. Foreman finished with 19 points to lead the team, hitting three 3-pointers.

Mindy Bonham (Nielson) and Alexis Kaufusi also both finished the game with double-digit points. Bonham ended with 11 while Kaufusi put up 10. Bonham also recorded nine assists to tie her career-high.

BYU went on an 13-2 run five minutes in the first half and would never look back from there, taking the 32-22 lead into halftime.

The second half proved to be a little tougher with the Rebels fighting back but never getting ahead. BYU got its double-figure lead back with four minutes to play after a jump shot from Coriann Wood. Wood finished the game with 17 points to tie her career- and-season high and had 10 rebounds. This was her second double-double of the season.

"Coriann had a really, really good game and made some big shots for us," Judkins said. "Jazmine also played really well tonight. This game really shows that our team has a lot of heart."

After this victory over the Rebels, at least two BYU players have now scored in double-figures in every BYU game. In this game, four players finished with double-figure points for the fifth time this season.

Erica Helms led the Rebel team with 18 points and five assists.

Both teams shot 41.5 percent from the field and the Cougars outrebounded the Rebels 40-36.

The Cougars now lead the series against the Rebels 24-12.

Next up for the Cougars is Air Force on January 13 in the Marriott Center at 7 p.m.