Cougars up next for
Rainbow Wahine

Brigham Young earned a spot in today's championship game of the Waikiki Beach Marriott Invitational with a 62-52 win over Southeast Missouri State at the Stan Sheriff Center last night.

The Cougars (5-1) play Hawaii (2-2) at 4 p.m.

The Rainbow Wahine defeated Southeast Missouri by the same 10-point margin Thursday night.

BYU was stronger off the boards, 44-27, including 14 offensive rebounds that resulted in 18 second-chance points.

The Otahkians (4-3) had difficulty passing the ball inside against BYU's matchup-zone defense and weren't able to overcome that with 3-point shooting, making just six of 27 from beyond the arc.

The Cougars' board strength will be a concern for the Wahine, who battled the Otahkians to a 39-39 standoff in the rebound battle Thursday. Also, if BYU goes with the matchup zone, that is a defense Hawaii has not faced this season.

Southeast Missouri State took a quick 8-0 lead as BYU turned the ball over five times and missed its first four field-goal attempts in the first 4:23 of action.

That's when Ambrosia Anderson came off the BYU bench and scored the Cougars' first 10 points. Kristen Kozlowski put BYU ahead 16-14 on a spinning layup with 7:16 left before intermission and the Cougars eased further ahead for a 30-23 advantage at the half.

Southeast Missouri closed to within one point twice midway through the second half, the last time with 10:37 to play. Three-pointers by Brandi Russia and Wanika Owsley and Simone Jackson's layup cut BYU's lead to 55-52 with 2:13 to go, but Southeast Missouri did not score again.

Anderson, a 6-foot junior forward, finished with game highs for points (20) and rebounds (12). Kozlowski followed with 16 points.

The Otahkians were led by Tatiana Conceicao's 16 points, while Russia contributed 10.

Note: Today's UH-BYU game will be shown live on KFVE, Ch. 5.