Lady Rebels lit up by Cowgirls, lose third conference game of season

UNLV women’s basketball will not win a third straight game after falling short in a rare conference home loss.

After winning its last two games by an average of 12 points, the Lady Rebels were stunned, 82-72, by the Wyoming Cowgirls Wednesday, Feb. 11 from The Pavilion. Earlier this conference slate, UNLV beat Wyoming inside Arena Auditorium by 29 points.

“Credit to Wyoming,” head coach Lindy La Rocque said. “They played a really good game and honestly, they kicked our butts a little bit.”

UNLV will remain in second place presently after San Diego State staved off Colorado State in a three-point finish to stay solely atop of the conference standings. The Aztecs are now 19-4 this year with a 13-1 Mountain West mark.

On the other hand, the Lady Rebels are 16-8 on the year with an 11-3 standing in conference play now.

“We’ve got a game on Saturday on our home court again,” La Rocque said. “We’ve got to regroup and have two great practices to play against a Grand Canyon team that could do the same thing honestly.”

Another home game remains as part of this two-game homestand for the program. It will conclude with a Valentine’s Day matinee from The Pavilion when the Grand Canyon Lopes come to town.

Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.

By the time UNLV nailed its first two three-pointers of the game, its opponent had already connected on four of its own. After the first 10 minutes of the game, Wyoming had gone 6-for-14 from downtown with only two shots coming from inside the paint.

“It started in transition early,” La Rocque said. “Which was part of our plan to try and stop that. Really it started there and I think that kind of opens it up [...] It felt like a snowball a little bit.”

Just over midway through the second quarter, the Cowgirls drilled their ninth made three of the night. That trey matched the team’s total from its 82-53 loss on a night where it went 9-for-31 from beyond the arc.

Heading into the fourth quarter, Wyoming had made 15 three-pointers in the eventual win. Those 15 made threes allowed is a new season-high for UNLV. The team has now allowed 10 or more threes six times this season and allowed 12 or more four times.

“It does kind of feel like a buzzsaw,” La Rocque said. “Wyoming averages 55 points [per game], they haven’t had – I don’t know their team like the back of my hand but I don’t know if they’ve scored 82 points all year. But they did and they are capable, clearly.”

The Lady Rebels found themselves playing catch-up all night largely behind a 25-13 second quarter by the Cowgirls that included an 8-2 start to the frame for the visitors.

At one point of that second quarter, the home team hopped into a full-court trap defense that fell back into a 2-3 zone. After an opposing player leaked out for a wide-open layup, La Rocque and company opted to just go full-court press in the fourth quarter when re-trying its hand at the pressure defense.

To make matters worse, UNLV went scoreless for the final 2:41 of the first half on the way to falling behind by as many as 13 points.

“We didn’t help ourselves by starting slow and not really being locked in from the jump,” La Rocque said. “When you let some shooters get hot, it’s contagious. We’ve been on the other side of that and done that to other people so we know what that feels like.”

That deficit would stretch to 16 points early in the third quarter, not long after, the team would show signs of life in the form of a 12-2 run while holding Wyoming scoreless for four minutes.

Ultimately, the Lady Rebels led for just 14 seconds in the loss.

Sophomore forward Meadow Roland scored 11 points in the first half as part of her career-night despite the outcome. She secured her ninth double-double of the season in the third quarter with 21 points and 10 rebounds.

Before the end of the night, she’d tally a career-high 30 points and 12 rebounds.

“I pulled her aside after our postgame team talk and said, ‘I thought she really battled,’” La Rocque said. “I saw her play harder in that game than maybe I’ve ever seen. Thirty points is her career-high which is incredible for her but she’s the first person to know that it’s soured because we didn’t win the game.”

Senior guard Jasmyn Lott added 14 points while fifth-year forward Shelbee Brown chipped in with 10 points of her own.