UNLV wins final road game of season ahead of season finale showdown with Boise State

UNLV’s final road trip of the season ended in ice cream after the team earned a hard fought win over Fresno State.

The Lady Rebels dumped the Bulldogs, 68-54, on the road Saturday, Feb. 28 from Save Mart Center. That brought the end to a two-game road trip that began with a 16-point loss to the Colorado State Rams.

Saturday went down as the 50th all-time meeting in the UNLV-Fresno State series with the former winning the last 10 encounters.

Before the win, the Lady Rebels had lost three of their last five outings while falling to 10 losses for the first time under head coach Lindy La Rocque. Even still, the team has a chance to win 20 games for a fifth straight season when it takes its 19-10 overall record into The Pavilion for a season finale contest against the Boise State Broncos.

Both UNLV and Boise State are tied among the top-four teams in the Mountain West standings. The teams will lock up Wednesday, March 4 with tip-off set for 6:30 p.m.

Choosing to be the grittier team worked out well for the Lady Rebs in a contest that gravely resembled a Sin City slugfest. The team held the Bulldogs scoreless for the final three minutes and 32 seconds of the first quarter. To compound things, the club held its opponent without a point for the first 3:44 of the second quarter as the team went up by 13 points.

Things got a little too physical when senior forward Shelbee Brown was given a flagrant 1 foul after catching an opponent with an elbow in the paint while battling for inside position. That mishap would lead to the first Fresno State points following that long drought.

Brown would regain her composure to end the night with 12 rebounds to go along with nine points.

As a team, UNLV forced 17 turnovers in the win but was only able to convert them into 13 points the other way. Of those 17 turnovers, eight came in the game’s opening quarter with seven steals to show for it.

Sophomore forward Meadow Roland and senior guard Aaliyah Alexander both accounted for two steals apiece in the first quarter. At one point of the second quarter, Roland had tallied 11 points, five rebounds, three steals and two blocks.

In total, Roland racked up a 17-point, 12-rebound double-double en route to the win.

Alexander led the team in scoring with 21 points on 5-of-9 shooting including all of her makes coming from downtown. She has scored 18 points or more in each of her last four games.