Lady Rebels rocked in season opener by No. 3 Trojans inside T-Mobile Arena

A season opener with all the bright lights on inside the T-Mobile Arena provided a big stage for the UNLV Lady Rebels hosting one of the nation’s preseason powerhouses.

UNLV was overpowered by USC, 100-68, Monday, Nov. 2 as part of the Hall-of-Fame Series. It’s the first season-opening loss for the program since the first season under head coach Lindy La Rocque in 2020-21.

The seven-year head coach now has a record of 4-15 against schools from Power conferences.

“We knew coming in the talent that they had on that roster is tremendous,” she said. “Honestly, I hope they win every game and make everyone else look bad too. I would love that [...] We can’t replicate that in practice,” La Rocque said. “So we got better today.”

Hoping to pick up its first win of the year with 10 newcomers on the roster, UNLV will stay in town and host its first official home game of the season. It will welcome UTSA into The Pavilion Friday, Nov. 6 with tip-off scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

USC sported a new trio of the returning JuJu Watkins, standout from last season Jazzy Davidson and top freshman Saniyah Hall in its season opener. Each player took over one of the first three quarters as UNLV had its hands full for most of the outing.

Hall got things started in her first official collegiate game with 11 points in the first quarter on a perfect 3-for-3 from the field including two made three-pointers. The Lady Rebels were on the wrong end of a 13-0 run in the opening frame that saw the team fall behind by 14 points.

“They all got over 20 points,” La Rocque said. “And that’s a credit to their roster.”

UNLV slipped behind by 17 points in the second quarter and that’s when Davidson did some of her best work. She went into halftime leading all scorers with 13 points as the Trojans’ Big 3 combined to score 34 points versus 39 points total for the Lady Rebels.

Ultimately, the largest lead of the game was 42 points.

Hall and Davidson finished the contest with 22 and 23 points respectively on a combined 17-of-19 from the field. In total, USC shot 59% from the field.

Watkins struggled from the floor in the first half but found a groove in the third quarter when she scored 11 of her 21 points on an eventual 9-of-22 shooting in 25 minutes. She played in her first game in 580 days after suffering a torn ACL.

“As a women’s basketball fan frankly, I was happy to see her out there,” La Rocque said. “She’s got a bright future ahead and it’s just great to get her back on the court. To be totally transparent, our gameplan wasn’t centered around her. Nor was it centered around one player because they’re so talented.”

As much as the offense of USC plagued UNLV, the visitors’ defense did just as much damage. After causing three turnovers in the first four minutes of the game, the Trojans went into a fullcourt press that resulted in back-to-back turnovers for the Lady Rebels.

By the final buzzer, UNLV committed 24 turnovers in the loss.

“Of course, we’ve got to take care of the ball and fix a couple of things here and there,” La Rocque said. “But in the grand scheme of things, there’s never any moral victories – ever. But this is game one of a long season that we want to have ahead of us.”

The Lady Rebels recorded just 11 assists on 22 made field goals with just two players reaching double-figure scoring. Freshman guard Jayla Constant was the first in double-figures on her way to 10 points in her first collegiate game in addition to committing eight turnovers.

“When you have young guard play you see the flashes of it,” La Rocque said. “Of course, we don’t love having 24 turnovers and I think everyone chipped in there.“Jayla Constant is going to be a great player for us. She made some mistakes out there but then you saw some flashes of, “Wow, she can be a really special player.”

Fellow newcomer Maia Rosarion led the team in scoring with 12 points in 11 minutes off the bench for La Rocque and company.

“We have a very resilient group,” La Rocque said. “We won two of the four quarters [but] the two that we lost really got away from us.”

Last season’s leading scorer Meadow Roland was hampered by foul trouble beginning with two fouls in the first quarter. She’d eventually foul out while tallying seven points and six rebounds in 24 minutes.