PROVO, Utah – The BYU women’s basketball team posted a convincing victory as it defeated the No. 18/19 Gonzaga Bulldogs, 70-40, on Thursday night in front of an energetic Marriott Center crowd.

BYU (22-4, 10-2) is now tied with Gonzaga (21-4, 10-2) for first place in West Coast Conference standings.

"It was our night," BYU coach Jeff Judkins said. "I'm really proud of my team. I think tonight was one of the best defensive efforts I've coached in a long, long time. We were physical; we executed the game plan very well."

Three Cougars scored in double-digits as Kim Parker led BYU with 16 points, Jennifer Hamson added 14 points and Kristen Riley recorded her seventh double-double this season with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Dani Peterson also grabbed 10 boards for the Cougars. Haley Steed handed out 10 assists in the victory to surpass All-American Erin Thorn and to take her place at No. 3 all-time in BYU history for assists in a career. Steed now has 507 career assists.

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The first half was a half of streaks as the Bulldogs took an early 7-2 lead but the Cougars battled back to tie the game, 7-7, off a three-point play by Riley. Hamson came in and made an immediate impact for BYU off the bench grabbing two rebounds, blocking a shot and scoring four points in her first four minutes of play. The Cougars prevented Gonzaga from scoring a field goal for over eight minutes to take a five-point lead, 14-9.

"It’s nice to have an ace in your pocket," Judkins said. "Hamson made some plays tonight that last year she wouldn’t even come close to. She improves probably more than anybody. She’s really a force. I know she’s going to continue to get better. One thing I like about Hamson, if something happens and it doesn’t go right, she keeps competing. She was a big factor. They had a hard time matching up with her tonight."

The Bulldogs battled back to tie the game, 14-14, but the balanced scoring by BYU would allow the Cougars to outscore Gonzaga 10-6 to go into the half with a four-point advantage over the Bulldogs. Steed went into the locker room with six assists, giving the senior guard more assists than the other players on either team combined. Both teams struggled from the field as BYU shot just 28.6 percent and Gonzaga shot 15.2 percent.

Sophomore Parker kicked off the second with back-to-back baskets, a jumper and a 3-pointer, for the Cougars but the Bulldogs answered with a two-point basket and trey of their own. The two teams continued to exchange baskets but with 13:27 remaining, BYU took over as a Stephanie Vermont 3-pointer sparked a 20-0 run, highlighted by a Parker old-fashioned three-point play as well as five points and a block by Hamson. With 5:13 remaining, Steed recorded her 506^th career assist with the dish to Riley to take her place in BYU history.

The Cougars took a 26-point lead off a three-point play by freshman Lexi Eaton and Judkins emptied his bench to finish the final 2:45 of the game. BYU shot an impressive 65.2 percent from the field in the second half.

"[Gonzaga] is a great team," Peterson said. "They are capable of a comeback so we didn’t want to give them any breathing room because they’re a great team and no great team ever gives up."

The Cougars will next face San Francisco on Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. in the Marriott Center. The game will be broadcast on BYUtv.

Postgame Notes

Team

The last time BYU defeated a ranked team was Nov. 13, 2006, when the Cougars defeated No. 4 Stanford, 55-52, on the Cardinal’s home court.

The last time BYU defeated a ranked team in conference play was Feb. 2, 2006, when the team defeated No. 16 New Mexico, 60-55, while a member of the Mountain West Conference.

For the victory against Gonzaga, 2,014 fans were in attendance, the second highest attendance of the season and highest in conference play.

BYU held Gonzaga to shooting 15.2 percent from the field during the first half and 21.9 percent for the game. The team only allowed three Bulldog 3-pointers.

The Cougars went on a 20-0 run during the second half to lock in their victory.

BYU now leads the overall series with Gonzaga 4-3.

The Cougars outrebounded the Bulldogs 44-37 and forced 15 turnovers. BYU also had 21 assists to Gonzaga’s seven.

BYU’s bench outscored Gonzaga’s 28-9. BYU had 19 points off turnovers to Gonzaga’s six and 22 points in the paint to Gonzaga’s 16.

Players

With her assist at the 5:13 mark in the second half, Haley Steed passed Erin Thorn’s career assist record. Steed is now No. 3 with 507 career assists. She needs seven more assists to tie for second with Kathy Denton.

Dani Peterson grabbed 10 rebounds, tying her career high. She also had three points.

Kristen Riley scored 11 points for her fifth-straight double-figure outing. With 10 rebounds, Riley recorded her fourth double-double in five games, seventh of the season and 11th of her career.

Kim Parker put up 16 points to lead all scorers. She also had five rebounds and four assists.

Jennifer Hamson scored 14 points, with nine rebounds and three blocks.

With a (21-4, 9-2) record and in second place in the latest WCC standings, the BYU women’s basketball team looks to stay unbeaten at home in league play. This Thurs., Feb. 9, the Cougars host No. 18/19 Gonzaga (21-3, 10-1) in a 7 p.m. tip off. BYU looks for a win that would tighten the race for the WCC regular season champion.

The game against the Zags airs live worldwide on BYUtv and is simulcast on BYU Radio on the Internet at byuradio. org and on Satellite Radio, Sirius XM 143.

GONZAGA GAME PROMOTIONS
Pack the House Night. General admission is $2. Following the game, join the women’s team in the first ever dance on the Marriott Center floor. Prizes, food and drinks.

2011-12 Team Summary
- Shooting from field: (.448, 669-1494)
- Shooting from three-point line: (.351, 171-487)
- Shooting from free-throw line: (.724, 297-410)
- Average points per game: 72.2
- Average rebounds per game: 39.9
- Average assists per game: 19.2
- Average steals per game: 9.9
- Average blocks per game: 6.1
- Average turnovers per game: 16.0

2011-12 Player Summary
-Leading scorer: Senior Kristen Riley - averages 11.4 points
-Leading rebounder: Riley - averages 7.4 boards per game
-Assist & Steals leader: Senior co-captain Haley Steed - 175 and 55 respectively.
-Top blocker: Jennifer Hamson - 63 total
-Best field goal percentage: Dani Peterson - (.584, 73-125)
-Best free throw percentage: Kim Parker - (.827, 43-52)
-Best 3-pt field goal percentage: Stephanie Vermunt - (.500, 35-70)

Winningest Coach in BYU History
- BYU head coach Jeff Judkins became the all-time winningest coach in BYU women’s basketball history, picking up his 220th career win when the Cougars defeated Pepperdine, 80-56 Thurs. Jan. 12, 2012. Judkins record on that night was 220-111 (.665) in his 11th season as head coach of the women’s program. He passed former BYU coach Courtney Leishman (1977-89) who finished at BYU with a 219-124 (.638) record.

Record Breaking Players
- Haley Steed has recorded 497 assists as of 02/05/12, which places her in fourth place all-time. She needs eight to tie for third place with All-American and current WNBA player Erin Thorn’s 505-career total.
- Steed has 203 steals to date and needs 26 to tie for seventh place with Karina Zapata’s career high 229.
- Steed has made 169 3-pointers as of 02/05/12 putting her in sixth place overall. She needs two to tie for fifth place with Thais Kidd's career best 171.
- Kristen Riley has 75 blocks as of 02/05/12 and needs four to tie for fifth place all-time with Cathy Nixon’s 79.
- Riley has grabbed 659 rebounds as of 02/05/12, putting her in eighth place overall. She needs 14 to tie for seventh with her sister Lauren Varley (Riley) who ended her career with a total of 673 rebounds.
- Riley has a total of 953 points scored as of 02/05/12, and needs 47 to become BYU's 22nd player to reach 1,000 points in her career.
- As of 02/05/12, 6-7 sophomore center Jennifer Hamson has tallied 108 blocks and needs 17 to tie for fourth place all-time with the 125 recorded by Jill Adams.

Cougs Break Into Top 25
Entering the week of Feb. 6, BYU fell out of the top-25 AP Poll after the loss at Pepperdine on 2/2/12. However, they did receive (28) votes.
The week of Jan. 23 and with an 18-3, 7-1 mark the team broke into the AP Poll with a No. 23 ranking. They received votes (1) the week of 1/16/12 as well as the week of 12/26/11 when the Cougars were 11-2.
The week of 12/26/11 they also received one vote in the USA Today ESPN Coaches Poll. On Jan. 24 they got (5) votes in the USA Today ESPN Coaches Poll. In the poll for the week of Jan. 31 the team got (8) votes. In the poll released on Feb. 7 they got (4) votes.

Last Time in the Polls
The last time that BYU was ranked in the polls was during the 2006-07 season.
On Monday, Nov. 13, 2006, the Cougars were ranked No.24
On Friday, Nov. 17, 2006, the Cougars were ranked No. 18
On Wednesday, Nov. 27. 2006, the Cougars were ranked No. 23
On Saturday, Dec. 2, 2006, the Cougars were ranked No. 22

Win Streak
BYU went on a nine-game win streak, before losing on the road at Pepperdine on 2/2/12.  Prior to the loss Thursday night, they had won eight straight league games. Earlier this season the Cougars won 10 games in a row, which was the longest current winning streak in the West Coast Conference before losing its debut game competing in the WCC, a 48-54 decision at Saint Mary’s.

Last season BYU went on a 12-game win streak during the 2011 Mountain West Conference race.

The longest win streak in the program’s history is 15 games played from 12/31/92 to 2/26/93.

THURSDAY WCC OPPONENT
NO. 18/19 GONZAGA
The Gonzaga Bulldogs enter this week’s WCC action ranked No. 18/19 in the polls with a 21-3, 10-1 record and are in first place in the league’s standings. Gonzaga has not been to Provo since the 1999-2000 season when they beat BYU 77-58 on Nov. 26, 1999. The Bulldogs have three players scoring in double figures with 6-3 senior forward Kayla Standish leading the way averaging 15.5 points and grabbing a team high 7.6 rebounds per game. Katelan Redmon, a 6-1 senior guard/forward combo is next contributing 13.3 points and 6.0 boards a contest. Rounding out the double digit scoring is sophomore guard Haiden Palmer who tallies 12.6 points and grabs 4.9 rebounds per game. Taelor Karr, a 5-8 junior guard has the most assists on the team while Palmer gets the most steals with 52 to date. Gonzaga averages 76.8 points and shoots 45.5 percent from the field, 33 percent from behind the arc and 71 percent at the free throw line. Head coach Kelly Graves is in his 12th year with the Bulldogs.

Series Breakdown
Overall Series Record: 3-3
BYU Record in Provo: 1-1
BYU Record in Spokane: 2-2
BYU Record in Neutral Sites: n/a
BYU Record under coach Judkins: 0-2
BYU Record in Overtime Games: n/a

Last Meeting
These two new league foes met last year in Spokane where the Bulldogs picked up the 91-64 win on Dec. 21, 2010.  In that contest, Jennifer Hamson and Dani Peterson came off the bench to score eight points each with Haley Hall dishing out five assists. The Cougars kept it close in the first half trailing by seven, 44-37 at the break, but only scored 27 points in the second half despite outrebounding the Bulldogs 45 to 34 for the game. The BYU bench had a good showing tallying 21 points to Gonzaga’s 13. The Zags picked up 46 points in the point to the Cougars 36 and had 22 points off of BYU miscues.

What’s Next
On Thurs., Feb. 16 the Cougars return to WCC action when they host San Francisco in a 7 p.m., start. The game against the Dons will air live worldwide on BYUtv.