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In one of the most efficient, prolific offensive scoring performances of the season, the UNLV Lady Rebels put a cap on its regular season home schedule with a 50-plus point drubbing of the San Diego State Aztecs.
On the team’s annual Senior Day, UNLV thumped SDSU, 100-41, Saturday, March 2 from the Cox Pavilion to close the regular season 12-1 at home. Moreover, the No. 24 team in the country ran its current win streak to 11 games as it picked up its fifth win as a ranked team this year.
“We’ve put in all of the work to be right where we want to be,” head coach Lindy La Rocque said. “Players have committed to investing in the development, the process that it takes to win. Not just one game but how to win consistently and how you sustain that.”
Sitting atop the Mountain West for a third straight season, this year’s Lady Rebels sport a 26-2 overall record with one more regular season game left to play. A road trip to Utah State for a date with the Aggies will conclude the regular season.
That game is scheduled to be played Tuesday, March 5 from the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum with tip-off slated for 5 p.m.
“Utah State isn’t the best team,” senior center Desi-Rae Young said. “But they have nothing to lose, we have more to play for so this is a team that we have to work on everything with. Our defense, our execution and things like that.”
Following that Utah State meeting, UNLV along with the rest of the Mountain West will turn its attention to the conference tournament which is set to begin Sunday, March 10 and will be played at the Thomas & Mack Center.
For the third straight season, the Lady Rebels will be the tournament’s top seed.
“The tournament is three games in three days,” La Rocque said. “So you’re relying on that regardless of what your roster is looking like. We’ve kind of been preaching that for the last few weeks.
“Our bench gets a little bit shortened especially in the guard spot but we’ve got great players that will do whatever it takes. And for some people it might be playing a little bit when you’re tired and sucking it up and still doing the right thing.”
The two made threes to open the scoring against San Diego State served as the perfect omen of things to come on the day. By the final buzzer, UNLV had converted 16 of its 33 three-pointers taken. Additionally, the team’s first four threes came from four different players including one apiece from seniors Young and fifth-year player Ashley Scoggin.
“It brings a smile to my face,” La Rocque said. “That’s their last game in the Cox Pavilion and to just see them play with so much fun and joy [...] If I had a magic wand in how I’d want it to go, it’s a lot like that.”
Young made her first three field goals on the day and would not miss her first shot until more than midway through the second quarter on her way to 19 first half points. She’d finish with 21 points on a near perfect 9-for-10 from the field.
Scoggin did most of her heavy lifting in the fourth and final quarter, opening the frame with back-to-back threes before adding another one later. She closed the night as one of the six players in double-figures with 17 points and a game-high five made threes.
Junior guard Alyssa Durazo-Frescas added 12 points, all off made threes for the sniper from California. Scoggin along with Durazo-Frescas accounted for nine of the team’s 16 made threes on the day.
Durazo-Frescas also added a game-high six assists with no turnovers while also coming up with four steals on the defensive end.
Senior forward Nneka Obiazor cashed in on a buzzer-beating three just before halftime and would end her night with 12 points. She joined starting guard Kiara Jackson, who tallied 11 points and a game-high nine rebounds in a contest that UNLV won the rebounding battle by 25.
Freshman guard Amarachi Kimpson knocked down a three-pointer on the last offensive possession for the Lady Rebels to give the team 100 points for the third time this season. More importantly, this year’s UNLV group has put up at least 90 points 11 times this season.
Everybody played for La Rocque’s group with all but one player recording points in the contest. In fact, the first seven players to play for the team in the first quarter all logged points in the opening 10 minutes as the team built a lead as large as 21 points in the first. That 21-point lead would eventually swell to the final win margin of 59 points.
“I don’t think they played their best basketball in my opinion,” Young said. “They gave us a game last time we played them but I think we did a phenomenal job on defense. We always can score but defense is where it's at.”
Team play was the biggest catalyst for the program’s dominant win as it compiled 26 total assists on 38 made field goals.
“Twenty-six [assists] on 38 field goals,” La Rocque said. “I was a math major at one time but not anymore. But that percentage is incredible, it truly is.”
This performance came with the bench getting even shorter for La Rocque and company. The team has already been without junior guard Kenadee Winfrey pretty much all year and been without junior forward Macie James for the past week.
Sophomore guard Jasmyn Lott missed the San Diego State game and could be seen in the building with a brace on her right knee along with crutches.
“We’ve talked about our depth all year long,” La Rocque said. “You don’t want to have something like injuries force you to do that so those are always unfortunate situations. But our team steps up and everybody is ready.”