Without chance at regular season conference crown, Lady Rebels add Senior Day win over Wolf Pack

With little to no room for error in hopes of not sliding any further in the conference standings, UNLV’s Lady Rebels are hoping to string together some wins.

Needing it badly, the program got a big, 81-64, win over intra-state rival Nevada – Reno on the team’s Senior Day. It will go down as a sweep for the Scarlet & Gray in this year’s installment of the Silver State Rivalry.

With the final win of the set coming at home, UNLV improved to 11-3 at home this season.

“It’s always a gritty game,” head coach Lindy La Rocque said. “Rivalries, Reno. In the nicest way, they make you play ugly a little bit.”

Before Saturday’s win, the Lady Rebels had lost two of their last three games.

As a result, the program was tied with the Boise State Broncos for second place in the Mountain West standings with a 12-4 overall record. Both teams were three games behind the top-placed San Diego State Aztecs, who eventually won the conference’s regular season crown during the UNLV-UNR matchup.

With the regular season conference championship win streak coming to an end, the 18-9 Lady Rebels will return to action Wednesday, Feb. 25 on the road against the Colorado State Rams. Tip-off scheduled for 5:30 p.m. from Moby Arena.

“Overall, just proud,” La Rocque said. “I thought we did some really good things that we want to continue to carry forward with us into our next game.”

From the early going, it could be seen the Lady Rebels had more than a couple of players feeling it offensively and it made for a big night for the home team. The squad went into halftime with four players accounting for eight or more points.

In the second quarter, standouts Meadow Roland, Aaliyah Alexander and Mariah Elohim missed their first shots of the night.

Roland scored 11 of her eventual 22 points in the first half. She shot 7-of-11 from the field in the win to go along with seven rebounds and six assists.

Alexander had a perfect 3-for-3 first quarter with six points to show for it. She also tallied three turnovers in the game’s opening quarter as she continues to play the role of de facto point guard for La Rocque’s program in lieu of injuries.

She’d end the outing with 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting while making all seven of her free throw attempts.

“It feels like she’s been here forever,” La Rocque said. “But she’s only been here two years.”

Lastly, Elohim added 12 points with all of her makes coming from downtown in the win following her fast start.

Both teams had an accelerated shooting start to the game with a 73% mark for UNLV and a 61% mark for the visitors. By the final buzzer, the home team outshot its opponent, 49% to 48%.

“The game gets ugly a little bit,” La Rocque said. “It felt like that in the first half and we just had to battle through some things [...] Challenged our team at halftime and felt like we came out with better intensity to get some stops and re-lock in.”

The biggest difference came from beyond the arc where the Lady Rebs connected on 10 of its 23 attempts while holding the Wolf Pack to 2-of-12 shooting from deep.

In addition, UNR shot 2-of-12 from the free throw line.

UNLV’s defense was stout after forcing just two turnovers in the first quarter. It would rebound to force six mistakes in the first five minutes of the second on the way to nine total at halftime.

As a result of those turnovers, the Lady Rebels turned them into 16 points on the other end as well as 13 fast break points.

Senior forward Shelbee Brown recorded at least three steals in a game for the 13th time this year. She totaled 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals in the win.

“This group is different,” La Rocque said. “We’ve never had six seniors like this in my tenure. Four of them it’s their first year here. Their first and their last.”

Reserve guard Sydni Summers was the final player in double-figures and the lone one off the bench for La Rocque. She chipped in with 11 points which featured three made threes.

“It was a team win,” Alexander said. “Everyone contributed and we really had to lock in because we knew they were a really good team. It felt good that everyone was going.”