La Rocque, Lady Rebels return to winning ways with 30-plus point win over Falcons

UNLV successfully bounced back from its first conference loss of the season with a blowout win as it hopes to return to form.

The Lady Rebels blasted the Air Force Falcons, 78-47, Wednesday, Jan. 21 from The Pavilion to complete a regular season sweep of its Mountain West foe. Their win takes the team to 8-2 at home this year.

“It was a close game at their place,” head coach Lindy La Rocque said. “Air Force is a really good team so we had the intention and focus from the get-go to not just start well but finish all the way through.”

Overall, UNLV is 13-6 this season after entering Wednesday in second place in the conference. Prior to tip-off the program was a game up on Colorado State while being two games up on Boise State and Grand Canyon.

Wednesday marked the end of a two-game homestand that ended in a .500 record for the Lady Rebels. In turn, the team will head out on a two-game road trip that will feature meetings with the Nevada – Reno Wolf Pack and New Mexico Lobos.

“It’s a rivalry game [up next],” La Rocque said. “I told our team anything can happen honestly. Our records don’t matter, who won or loss recently doesn’t matter. We have to come in there with a toughness to play our rival on their homecourt, play well and we’ve got to have the mentality that we’ve got to put them away.”

Tough UNLV defense held Air Force to just one make in a 12-attempt stretch in the first quarter. To close that frame, the club went on a 9-0 run to take a 18-9 lead into the second quarter.

That was followed by a +11 second quarter for the Lady Rebels as they held their opponent to 28% from the field in the first half with just one make on eight three-point tries. In total, the home team held the visitors to that same 28% from the field in the game to go along with a 3-for-24 mark from beyond the arc.

“We try to look at all teams as using them to get better,” senior guard Jasmyn Lott said. “We don’t look at them as bottom of the barrel, they’re all important in order to get to where we want to be.”

As a team, UNLV shot 19-of-23 on layups on the way to shooting 53% from the field collectively in the win. With some late three-point heaves, the team shot a brisk 5-for-18 from deep.

“I wouldn’t say we have three-point issues by any means,” La Rocque said. “I thought we had some good looks today, some good drive-and-kicks to very capable shooters [...] I think we just continue to have an emphasis to pound the paint.”

Late in regulation, the Lady Rebels went on a 13-0 run to go up by 35 points, their largest margin in the victory.

Senior forward Shelbee Brown scored 16 of her game-high 20 points in the first half, a 20-minute session that saw her team win the points in the paint battle by 20. By the final buzzer, UNLV had scored 48 points in the paint versus just 28 points the other way.

“That’s kind of been our identity all year,” La Rocque said. “We want to start playing inside and if it goes inside-out great. If it goes inside and stays inside, we’re going to keep feeding the beast so to say.”

Lott added 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting.

After being held to six points and six rebounds in the team’s loss to San Diego State, sophomore forward Meadow Roland recalibrated with 12 points and nine rebounds.

Senior guard Mariah Elohim was the final Lady Rebel in double-figures with 10 points in a game where everyone in uniform played.

“Was really proud from start to finish,” La Rocque said. “Everybody that got in the game I thought really did positive things. That’s huge for us especially when it’s a two-game week.”