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UNLV faced adversity a couple of different ways but the team found a way to squeeze out another conference win to keep multiple streaks alive.
After suffering a cold first half and having to endure late foul trouble to key pieces, the Lady Rebels were still able to down the San Diego State Aztecs, 67-60, Wednesday, Jan. 17 from Viejas Arena. Emerging with the victory means the current win streak is up to six for the No. 25 team in the country while running its Mountain West win streak to 29 consecutive.
“I’m really proud when people step up to the call,” head coach Lindy La Rocque said. “It was our bench today and [senior forward Nneka Obiazor], [freshman guard Amarachi Kimpson] and [sophomore guard Jasmyn Lott]. We needed them.”
That’s now a 15-1 overall record for the two-time defending Mountain West champions as it closes the book on a two-game road trip. They will now return home for a pit-stop game inside the Cox Pavilion Saturday, Jan. 20 against New Mexico.
Midday tip-off is planned for 2 p.m.
“We don’t control our conference schedule at all,” La Rocque said. “And the conference went back to an old format this year where it's one road game, one home game every week basically. Personally, I don’t like it for the exact reason I’d rather play two away so you can have two home [games] and not have to travel every week because it’s getting pretty taxing.
“But it’s made us really battle and learn to play away from home in tough environments with a lot of adversity so I think we’re pretty battle-tested.”
While neither team was able to get a stranglehold on the game early, San Diego State erased a third quarter double-digit UNLV lead in the fourth, trimming it to just two points. During that time, the Lady Rebels were without senior center Desi-Rae Young and junior guard Kiara Jackson, who were battling foul trouble.
With the team up two, Obiazor knocked down her third three-pointer of the game to push it back to five. Soon after, junior forward Alyssa Brown cashed in on her lone made field goal of the game plus the foul and free throw.
“There is a way you can overcoach them a little bit,” La Rocque said. “We have really good players and talented players. At some point, even if they’re playing uncharacteristically, you’ve got to believe and trust that they’re going to go do the next right thing.”
From there, Obiazor drilled her fourth three of the game to give UNLV its largest lead of the game at 13 points. She accounted for all of the team’s made threes on the day on her way to a season-high 18 points.
Obiazor had her season cut short last year after tearing her ACL eight games into the campaign.
“The people that have watched us a lot remember Nneka before the injury and everything that she was doing that was so great,” La Rocque said. “I’m just proud of her for trusting us and the process and not getting too frustrated early when it’s taking her more than, of course, than any young person wants for them to get back to their normal selves. She’s getting better every game and it’s right at the time that we need it frankly.”
UNLV also locked down on defense, holding SDSU without a field goal for nearly five minutes of the 10-minute fourth quarter frame. La Rocque’s group hopped into a full-court press to push the lead back to double-digits and eventually up to 12.
The proverbial reset button had to be hit at halftime after the Lady Rebels erupted for 23 points in the third quarter after being held to just 20 in the entire first half. A rather efficient UNLV group was limited to 2-for-16 from the field in the second quarter, enduring a scoreless drought of 3:28 and another of 2:58.
“I think we did a lot of self-inflicting errors and wounds there,” La Rocque said. “Credit [SDSU] for the gameplan and the strategy but I don’t think we responded with the toughness that we needed to.
“I challenged them at halftime, obviously we knew we were a better team than to only score 20 points in 20 minutes of play. It’s pretty uncharacteristic of us.”
Young scored 11 of her 17 points in the third quarter to help the team regain control.
The aforementioned Lott and Kimpson added 11 and 10 points of their own off-the-bench as part of a 39-10 advantage in bench production for the Lady Rebs.