Cougars Lose Hard Fought Battle to Duke

DURHAM, North Carolina (Nov. 13, 2010) - An early lead in the first half wasn't enough to keep the BYU women's basketball team ahead against the No. 5 Duke Blue Devils with a 69-54 loss for the Cougars in North Carolina, Saturday.

Senior Mindy Bonham was the only Cougar to score in double-figures against Duke with 12 points on the night.

"I'm really proud of our team and how they played tonight," said BYU head coach Jeff Judkins. "We played well but I think they wore us down and got some easy baskets that obviously hurt us. Dani Peterson played a great first half for us tonight and it was unfortunate that Kristen Riley got those early fouls. This is a great environment to play in, however, and a good experience for the girls."

The Cougars went on an 8-0 run to start the game with points from Bonham and Kristen Riley, and would hold the lead for the majority of the first half.

Duke took their first lead of the game with just two minutes until the break on a 24-23 score. Six more unanswered points would carry them into halftime.

The second half started with an equal scoring drive of 14-13 for BYU but the Blue Devils would take the lead from there and finish the game scoring 26 points to BYU's 17 for a final 69-54 score for the homestanding team.

Coriann Fraughton and Haley Hall both added eight points to the BYU effort with Karima Christmas' 20 points leading the Blue Devils.

The Cougars shot 28 percent overall while holding the Blue Devils to 38 percent.

Next up for BYU is another game on the road against the University of Chicago, Illinois, on Wednesday Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. CT in Chicago.