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Provo • A guard from a small town in East-Central New York with a penchant for scoring points in a variety of ways is starring for the BYU basketball team after having languished on the bench the past two seasons.

No, this is not a paragraph from the 2008-09 season, when a lightly recruited New Yorker by the catchy name of Jimmer Fredette burst onto the local, and then national, college basketball scene after a mediocre first year.

Rather, BYU women's basketball's Cassie Broadhead, who coincidentally played for Fredette's rival high school near Glens Falls — the Scotia-Glenville Tartans — and grew up idolizing Fredette, is following a similar trajectory to stardom in Provo.

It is a stretch to say the 5-foot-9 junior is approaching Fredette's popularity and status as one of the best players in BYU basketball history — she never will win National Player of the Year honors, for instance — but Broadhead is leading the West Coast Conference in scoring at 18.4 points per game after averaging 3.9 points per game last season as a seldom-used sophomore. Fredette jumped from 18.5 minutes and 7.0 points per game his freshman year to 33 minutes and 16.2 points per game his sophomore season.

"It is kind of funny, yeah, because we grew up in the same area, and our high schools are rivals," Broadhead said. "Our college careers kind of took off at the same time. Obviously, his took off way more than mine has. But yeah, I am just following in his footsteps, in a way."

Broadhead scored a career-high 30 points Saturday in BYU's 81-63 win over San Diego, the ninth time in the past 11 games she has scored 20 points or more.

"I think we're seeing a kid become a star right before our eyes," BYU coach Jeff Judkins said Monday. "I don't think she will ever score like Jimmer did, because she likes to pass the ball too much. But I think she can be as effective for our team and be the best player in our league."

Broadhead actually fills the stat sheet more than Fredette, as evidenced by her career-high seven rebounds and six assists against the Toreros while shooting 9 of 14 from the field and 9 of 9 from the free-throw line.

"That's a huge compliment, coming from the head coach," Broadhead said about Judkins calling her a star on the rise. "I am not surprised by what is happening. My teammates and I worked hard in the offseason with the strength coach to prepare us for this season. A lot of credit goes to them. They are making good passes, creating things for me, and so it is not just me. It has been a team effort."

This season isn't the first time the names Jimmer and Cassie have been brought up in the same sentence.

Judkins said he first learned about Broadhead when he got a message on his phone from an LDS Church stake president, Rod Standage, in New York saying "there is a girl out here that is a female Jimmer" who was breaking freshman scoring records in the same region of New York that Fredette did 10 years ago.

"I owe a lot to" Standage, Broadhead said. "He told them I was a Mormon girl who loved to play and was pretty good. They probably wouldn't have known about me if he hadn't told them."

Judkins did some research and watched some film, then invited Broadhead to a summer basketball camp in Provo after her freshman season. He traveled to New York to watch her play her sophomore year and extended a scholarship offer. She immediately accepted.

Broadhead separated her shoulder and missed most of her senior year of high school, so she was unheralded when she arrived in Provo. She redshirted her first college season, then was stuck behind an outstanding point guard, Kylie Maeda, and the leading scorer in school and WCC basketball history, Lexi Eaton, the past two seasons as she made the switch from shooting guard to the point.

Having played 650 of a possible 680 minutes this season, Broadhead leads the WCC in minutes played, is seventh in free-throw percentage, second in 3-point field-goal percentage, seventh in assists and tied for fifth in steals.

"Sitting out and not playing as much as I wanted to, as a competitor, that build up a lot of fire in me," Broadhead said. "So not playing a lot those first two years obviously wasn't that fun. But I learned a lot playing behind Kylie and Lexi, and every summer I worked harder and harder so I could get that opportunity to play."

Broadhead, who was a sophomore at Scotia-Glenville when Fredette was a senior at BYU, has worked as a counselor at Fredette's basketball camps and often receives congratulatory emails from Jimmer's parents, Al and Kay Fredette. Her parents, Tim and Nicole Broadhead, are close to the Fredettes and members of the same church congregation.

"It has been a great experience, playing for BYU," she said. "It was always a dream of mine to play for BYU because my whole family came to BYU, my parents and all that. It has been fun, making my mark here a little bit."

Just like Jimmer.

drew@sltrib.com

Twitter: @drewjay —

From New York to Provo

Cassie Broadhead at BYU

Season (Year) • Minutes per game • Points per game

Freshman (2014-15) • 8.7 • 1.6

Sophomore (2015-16) • 15.8 • 3.9

Junior (2016-17) • 38.2. • 18.4

Jimmer Fredette at BYU

Season (Year) • Minutes per game • Points per game

Freshman (2007-08) • 8.5 • 7.0

Sophomore (2008-09) • 33.0 • 16.2

Junior (2009-10) • 31.1 • 22.1

Senior (2010-11) • 35.8 • 28.9