Cougars Open at No. 5 Duke

The BYU women’s basketball team opens the 2010-11 season with a bang on Saturday, taking on ACC preseason favorite Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Cougars are picked to finish third in their final season in the Mountain West Conference behind TCU and San Diego State.

BYU was picked sixth last year but finished in second place with an 11-5 conference record.

Jeff Judkins returns a veteran team that includes five seniors and four returning starters, including senior guard and leading scorer Mindy Bonham.

The Cougars made an impressive run in the WNIT tournament last season, winning three games and advancing to the Elite Eight before losing to Cal in Berkley.

Duke bowed out to Baylor in the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament last year after winning the regular season and tournament championships in the ACC.

The Blue Devils return three starters including leading scorer Jasmine Thomas who averaged 16 points a game last year and is a candidate for national player of the year. Also returning is 6-5 center Krystal Thomas who pulled down 6.6 rebounds per game last season and tallied 70 block shots.

Duke starts the season ranked fitth and sixth respectively in the two major polls.

The Cougars say they are excited to make the trip to back to Durham, North Carolina and see how they stack up against one of the best programs in the country…