Lady Rebels roll after slow start, remain tied for MW lead
The situation was all too familiar for UNLV.
The Lady Rebels trailed New Mexico by double digits in the first quarter again Saturday. And just like the last time the teams met, they rallied for a victory, this time by a 74-62 score at Cox Pavilion.
UNLV (18-9, 13-3 Mountain West) remained in a first-place tie with Wyoming for the conference lead with two games left. The Cowgirls defeated Fresno State 74-57 on Saturday.
The Lady Rebels overcame early foul trouble — four starters had at least two fouls apiece in the first half — to pull away from New Mexico (20-9, 8-8), which led 17-6 five minutes into the game.
“I just thought we didn’t start off well,” said UNLV coach Kathy Olivier, whose team trailed by 14 in the first quarter at New Mexico on Jan. 17. “They came out blazing, and we ended up matching their intensity and ended up running away with it.”
Junior Katie Powell, who hit 8 of 12 field goals and finished with team highs of 20 points and eight rebounds, said she thought the game started to shift when the Lady Rebels changed their defense.
“When we started our 2-3 zone, that really helped us out a lot,” Powell said. “We were closing out on shooters, we shut down the bigs on the inside, and that let us get stops to scores to get up on them.”
UNLV trailed 18-15 after the first quarter, led 36-31 at halftime and pulled away with an 11-0 run in the third quarter. The Lady Rebels led by as many as 25 points.
“They’re a team that executes well,” Olivier said. “They have a lot of offensive weapons. They’re a team to beat, and for us to be up by as many as 20 at one point, that’s amazing.”
The Lady Rebels limited a team averaging 81.7 points in part by quieting star point guard Cherise Beynon for most of the game. The Canyon Springs High School product scored only five points in the first half and finished with 14, but most of them came after the game had been decided.
“She (Beynon) always says that it’s a mental thing when she comes back to play here because I guess she’s from here,” Powell said. “She’s always like, ‘It’s a mental thing. I never play good against them.’ But I think it’s because of our defense that she doesn’t play well.”
UNLV plays at UNR on Tuesday, then hosts Utah State on Friday before the Mountain West tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center.
“It’s the end of the year. For us to be in first place, I can’t say enough about this team,” Olivier said. “They just are competitive every day. They come to practice and work so hard.”
Contact Betsy Helfand at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BetsyHelfand on Twitter.
