Provo, Utah – Brigham Young’s Jennie Keele played the last five minutes with a broken nose and hit a half-court, buzzer-beating 3-pointer that gave the Cougars a 55-52 victory over Wyoming at the Marriott Center.
Keele, who finished with 11 points, was the second player this season to beat the Cowgirls on a last-second, half-court shot. Kansas State’s Claire Coggins hit a 47-foot shot at the buzzer Nov. 17 that forced overtime and led to a 68-62 Wildcats’ win.
Wyoming, led by Aubrey Vandiver’s career-high 15 points, erased a 13-point halftime deficit. Vandiver’s 3-pointer with two minutes remaining cut BYU’s lead to 52-49, and her driving baseline jumper with 2.2 seconds left tied the score at 52-52.
But BYU (12-4, 3-0 Mountain West) inbounded the ball quickly and Keele got a shot off in time to earn her fifth double-double of the season.
“Jennie is a smart player. But you’ve got to have a little luck in life,” BYU coach Jeff Judkins said. “It was nice to have it bounce our way.”
Hanna Zavecz added 12 points for Wyoming (10-5, 1-2), and Justyna Podziemska scored 11.
No. 23 TEXAS 68, COLORADO 49 at Austin, Texas: Carla Cortijo had 11 points and seven assists to lead No. 23 Texas over Colorado at the Erwin Center.
Cortijo and Erneisha Bailey, who had 15 points, paced the Longhorns (13-4, 2-1) early, and the Big 12’s leading scorer, Tiffany Jackson, found her groove late, scoring 15 of her 16 points in the second half.
Jackie McFarland led Colorado (8-7, 2-1) with 15 points. But the Buffaloes committed 34 turnovers, which the Longhorns turned into 34 points.
Texas jumped out to a 9-0 lead and Colorado didn’t score its first two points until Jasmina Ilic’s baseline jumper with 13:22 left in the first half.
Open looks were few and far between for both teams.
Colorado held Jackson, who averaged 25 points per game coming in, to one free throw in the first half.
The Longhorns went on runs of 5-0 and 7-0 with less than five minutes to play in the half to head into the locker room up 31-18.
Colorado, which began a stretch of four road games in five overall, fell short in matching its best conference start since starting 3-0 in 1996-97.
Going into the game, McFarland, who added eight rebounds, was averaging 19.8 points and 10.7 rebounds.
DENVER 74, FLORIDA INT’L 61 at Miami: Denver had five players in double figures, led by Tyesha Lowery’s 18 points, to earn the team’s first road win over Florida International at Pharmed Arena.
The Pioneers (9-6, 4-2 Sun Belt) also got 13 points from Sara Behnam. Florida International (9-7, 3-2) was led by Lasma Jekabsone’s game-high 22 points.
RMAC women
Stevi Seitz’s game-high 18 points led Regis (11-4, 6-1) to a 70-44 win over visiting Fort Lewis (7-7, 4-3). Denise Lopez added 14 for the Rangers. Laura Haugen’s 10 points were a Skyhawks’ game-high.
Metro State (12-3, 5-2) got 19 points from Ashley Mickens as the Roadrunners rolled past visiting Western New Mexico (3-9, 3-4) 62-46 at the Auraria Events Center.
Colorado Christian (5-10, 1-6) had four players in double figures, led by Talmai Aguirre’s 18 points, to earn an 80-67 win over visiting New Mexico Highlands (1-13, 1-6).
Men
Florida International held off a second-half Denver rally, overcoming Tyler Bullock’s game-high 16 points to defeat the Pioneers 61-59 in a Sun Belt Conference game at Pharmed Arena in Miami.
Florida International (7-10, 2-5) was led by Cedric Essola’s 12 points and Alex Galindo’s 11. The Golden Panthers snapped a five-game losing streak and kept Denver (2-15, 1-6) from winning consecutive games for the first time this season.
Florida International also won in the series for the first time in six tries. Denver had won five straight over the Panthers, but the series record stands at 5-5.
The Pioneers lost a 10th consecutive road game dating to Feb. 11, 2006.
