By Rebekah Romney
The women”s basketball team fell to the Colorado State Rams 81-64 in the conference opener on Thursday, Jan. 10.
The Cougars could not pull within 12 points of the Rams in the second half, despite a career high 20 points for senior guard Stacy Jensen.
“She”s a competitor. We need more people like her,” coach Jeff Judkins said. “She would”ve rather had a bad game and a win though.”
Junior forward Ashley Augspurger, the Rams” leading scorer, had 14 points in the first half and racked up 27 points not counting free-throws.
The Rams, who haven”t lost this season when leading at the half, entered the second half 19 points ahead of the Cougars.
BYU picked up the defense in the second half, but got into foul trouble early.
With 9:42 left in the game, the Cougars already had seven team fouls, while Colorado State didn”t get that many until only 1:38 remained on the clock.
Benefiting from BYU”s foul trouble, the Rams made 19 of 20 free throws. They shot an incredible 95 percent in the second half.
“We always shoot more fouls than our opponents,” Rams coach Tom Collen said. “We attack harder.”
Despite foul trouble, the Cougars played significantly better the second half. They were outscored by only two points.
By the end of the first half, the Cougars were too far in the whole to recover.
Judkins said a loss of concentration hurt the Cougars. It was as if they were playing in a daze during the Rams” 15-0 run in the first half.
Toward the end of the game, different players started trying to make a play instead of working together. Judkins told them they couldn”t get the game back in one shot, and to work together.
“Sometimes you have to let your team learn from it,” he said.
Judkins wants to concentrate on Wyoming now, and is happy they only have one day between the two games.
Wyoming is ranked sixth in the conference and is coming off a loss to Utah Thursday night.
The Cowboys are returning five starters and eight letter-winners. They are led by junior forward Carrie Bacon, who averages more than 14 points per game.
Game time is 1 p.m. Saturday in the Marriott Center.
