By Skyler Clevland
The BYU women”s basketball road warriors hope to continue their season”s success in their Mountain West Conference opener against the Colorado State Rams tonight, Jan. 15, at the Moby Arena in Fort Collins, Colorado.
The Cougars are coming off a three-game road win streak in three different states this past week, and hope to capture another road win in their fourth state in Colorado.
The Rams are coming into tonight”s game with a 9-4 record, 5-3 at home, and winning its last three games. The Rams are led by four of their five starters, each averaging over 12 points per game. The Rams are scoring 67.9 points and only allowinig opponents 59.1 points per game this season. With the Rams strength to score, the Cougars are faced with a difficult challenge ahead of them.
“Defensively, I know their pretty big, in their three, four and five spots,” said Jonas Chatterton, administrative assistant for the BYU women”s basketball team. “We”re going to have to do a good job defending them, but I think if we just worry about what were trying to do, I think we”ll be fine.”
The Cougars are coming off an 82-point output versus Portland State, a season high in their 14 games this season. The Cougars are led this season by junior forward Daniel Cheesman, averaging 12.6 points and 7.2 rebounds per game, and sophomore forward Ambrosia Anderson, who averages 11 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.
Both players have played a leadership role to help the 10-4, 7-1 on the road Cougars to get off to their best preseason start and road victories since the 1999-2000 season, when they went into league play 10-3 overall and 5-3 in away games. To continue their success, the Cougars must come together and execute as a team.
“We”re going to have to execute offensively, run good motion and make them guard us,” said Chatterton. “We have to hit shots, finish plays, and when we do that, we are hard to beat.”
This game is the third straight league opener against the Rams, and both teams have split the first two contests. BYU has not defeated the Rams since 1994 in the Moby Arena, but the Cougars are looking to stop that trend as they head to Fort Collins.
“It”s going to be a tough game, but we”re excited to go,” said senior center Ashleigh Chamberlain. “We finally start the season, and we know that we have been coached well, and hopefully we can come out and get a win.”
BYU has proved to be able to win on the road. A win today will help in its challenging goal to win away from the Marriot Center and to be contenders for a conference championship.
