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The UNLV Lady Rebels closed out the Air Force Falcons on the road, 52-49, improving their all-time record against the Falcons, 45-5, including wins in the last 16 straight meetings.
“I'm not sure how we ended up with more points but I'm glad we did,” head coach Lindy La Rocque said. “Although, we have to be better offensively and defensively.”
UNLV will continue on the road for their second straight matchup against the Air Force Academy Sunday, Feb.7 at 5 p.m.
The win keeps the Lady Rebels in fourth place in the Mountain West standings with a 7-4 conference record and 9-7 overall record.
Although UNLV sits at fourth place in the conference, they have the third best conference record only behind, first place Colorado State (9-2) and third place Fresno State (8-3).
UNLV has many games ahead that will have a significant effect on where they will end up in the MW standings, however, the most important opponent is to end the regular season against the Fresno State Bulldogs.
The Lady Rebels continue to sit two games behind the conference-leading Colorado State Rams.
UNLV had an unexpected off night on both ends of the floor, the low score of the game is an indication, appearing to be caught off-guard.
A 52-49 victory is the lowest points scored by UNLV since 52-50 on the road at Gonzaga on Dec. 9, 2017.
The Lady Rebel of the game was freshman forward Desi-Rae Young, who recorded 15 points on 5-of-9 from the field and snagged nine rebounds, one short of a double-double.
Other than that, the Lady Rebels struggled offensively.
UNLV shot just 31 percent from the field, 15 percent from the three-point range and 64 percent from the free throw line.
The Falcons made it very difficult for the Lady Rebels, switching on pick-and-rolls, crashing the glass to snag the rebounds and contesting every shot with a hand in the air making it difficult to make shots.
“We could just never get in rhythm, and you have to give Air Force credit for that. They got us off guard and we could never get it going but we stayed in the game,” La Rocque said. “[We] got some good contributions off-the-bench in [sophomore guard] Jacinta [Buckley] and [sophomore forward] Anna [Blount], and then obviously [Young] had some very clutch plays there at the end.”
Again offensively, UNLV’s weakness continues to be taking care of the ball.
The Lady Rebels recorded 14 turnovers to the Falcons 11, to secure the three-point win.
As a whole, UNLV recorded four steals against Air Force’s 10 and two blocks to its 12.
The Lady Rebels lead the Mountain West conference in rebounding and are out-rebounding their opponents in nearly every game.
“Proud of our effort in spurts but our team is unhappy with our play and that's a good thing,” head coach Lindy La Rocque said. “We will learn lessons from this. We have another tough game here on Sunday so we have to make some adjustments to come out of here with two wins.”