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MWC TOURNEY NOTEBOOK: Gritty Wright steps up for BYU |
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JaredLloyd | Saturday, March 10, 2007, 12:59 am
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Jason Franchuk
Daily Herald
In a fitting tribute to NASCAR weekend in Las Vegas, BYU trainer Carolyn Billings helped one of the Cougars stay active after a crash that required a momentary pit stop.
Dani Wright sprained her ankle in Wednesday's quarterfinal, then had to have some chin damage taped up hastily in the 55-49 win against Utah on Friday.
The Cougars, who will play New Mexico at 2 p.m. MT today at the Thomas & Mack Center for the Mountain West Conference title, needed Wright down the stretch. She held off foul trouble and shrugged off discomfort to stick around.
Wright was all over the place in the final minutes, despite picking up her fourth foul with about nine minutes remaining. The Cougars trailed 41-36 at the time in a semifinal that was often a dramatic hot-then-cold slugfest by both teams.
BYU was frustrated that Wright picked up fouls No. 2 and 3 in the opening two minutes of the second half. She sat a little, but not long enough to get stale.
Head coach Jeff Judkins felt obligated to keep her in — play your best players and take the gamble, he said afterward — and the senior center did some of her best work of the night.
"I thought she did a great job of coming in and getting some key baskets down the stretch," Judkins said.
Granted, the MWC's co-player of the year had some good fortune while finishing with a team-high 14 points in 34 minutes.
She nearly charged on one of the three quick baskets scored after playing on a fourth foul, then on the next possession also could've picked up foul No. 5 with a block.
At 4:38 she went down, a "knock up" on the chin she called it.
Still, Wright had the pain threshold to sprint back up the floor and distract a Utah outside shooter just enough into a missed 3-pointer.
At the next stoppage, she exited while bleeding. Judkins called timeout to stall, but Billings wasn't quite done. Wright only missed 18 seconds of game time, though, as she returned with a thick bandage on her face.
"Nothing big," Wright said. "We came out with a win, so I'm happy. It doesn't bother me at all."
The ankle wasn't even a factor, she said, after spraining it early against Air Force on Wednesday. Judkins said then that he could've played her further in the quarterfinal game, but had been warned by Billings that it could impact future ability.
"You know, say a little prayer and go on it," Wright said.
Wright fulfilled post-game interview duties before being taken to get stitches.
∫Utes look forward to future: Elaine Elliott had a young team, one she gave an "A" for the season.
"I was proud of our team," she said. "You know, we just don't ever want to be associated with an effort that would include quitting or somehow not giving your best shot. I am really proud to say I don't have to worry about that."
Utah finished 18-13, hopeful for a WNIT postseason bid. A far cry from being a few points from the Final Four like last year, but Elliott thought this neophyte group met expectations. The Utes have been known to turn down WNIT bids in the past, but Elliott said she wouldn't think of it this year. More games would help this squad, she said.
"This is a good team (and the WNIT) is a good match," she said. "My decisions on those have always been unique to where I think a team is emotionally. We simply are extremely young. It would be the next step for this team."
∫Tip-ins: In their first two games (UNLV, Wyoming), the New Mexico women have outscored their opponents 38-6 in the opening 20 minutes. Against Wyoming, it was a 17-5 charge out of the semifinal gate. ... Wyoming's Hanna Zavecz finished the season as a 20-plus point scorer in the last five games. ... BYU and Utah have each won three games against each other in MWC tournament play.
∫Not so free: At 66.1 percent from the foul line, BYU might be considered a poor free throw shooting team.
BYU hit just 29-of-45 (64 percent) from the foul line against Wyoming, but the percentage suffered because Trent Plaisted managed to connect on just 7-of-16. His teammates were 22-of-29 (76 percent), including 16-of-20 (80 percent) in the final three minutes.
If Plaisted’s 92-of-185 (49 percent) is taken out of the equation, BYU shoots nearly 73 percent (343-of-473) from the line for the season, good enough for third in the MWC.
Wyoming had its own struggles at the line on Friday. The Cowboys made just 15-of-28 (54 percent), one day after draining 22-of-27 (82 percent) in their 67-62 upset of Air Force.
∫On fire: Wyoming’s Brandon Ewing said his team wasn’t shellshocked at the beginning of the semifinals. BYU was just that good.
“Every open look they had, they knocked ‘em down,” Ewing said. “Whether it was a 3 or a good move down there in the post, they made ‘em.
“BYU is a great team, a Top 25 team. It was just, they were on tonight. It was one of those type of nights for their whole team. When a player is hitting every shot — and their whole team was hitting every shot — it’s kind of hard to defend one player.”
∫Piling up the wins: At 25-7, the BYU men have posted the program’s most wins in a season since 1992-93, when Roger Reid led the Cougars to a 25-9 mark. The school record for most wins in a season belongs to the 1950-51 Cougars, which had 28 wins under Stan Watts and claimed the NIT title. |
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