Lady Rebels won’t be ‘home’ in tournament

It’s hard to say how UNLV will play this week when it moves next door to the Thomas & Mack Center for the Mountain West Conference women’s basketball tournament.

After all, the Lady Rebels played only once at the Thomas & Mack all season, beating Southern Utah 71-58 on Nov. 18 in their second game.

But this much is safe to assume: MWC opponents are glad they won’t have to play UNLV at Cox Pavilion.

Though the Lady Rebels finished 5-11 in the conference with a 61-55 home loss to regular-season co-champion San Diego State on Saturday, two MWC victories came at the Cox over upper-echelon Utah and New Mexico, and UNLV probably should have beaten Brigham Young there, too.

The Lady Rebels forced San Diego State (22-6, 13-3) to play hard to the end to gain a share of the conference title with Utah (20-9, 13-3). The Utes won the tiebreaker to gain the top seed in the conference tournament, though Utah and San Diego State will receive byes into the semifinals.

No. 7 seed UNLV will face No. 6 BYU (18-10, 8-8) in the first round at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

UNLV finished 12-17 in the regular season but was 9-8 at Cox Pavilion. The Lady Rebels didn’t play nearly as well on the road, going 2-9.

“I just think it’s our comfort (at home),” coach Kathy Olivier said. “We have really good leadership. I think on the road we try to do too much.

“I thought today we played really steady and solid and very good basketball.”

In the final regular-season home game for five seniors, the Lady Rebels quickly made it clear this game would be far different from their 83-58 loss at San Diego State on Feb. 4.

“We came out with more hype this game and more intensity,” said UNLV center Shamela Hampton, whose 13 points matched guard India Chaney for the team high.

The Lady Rebels came away with several loose balls and used a 2-3 zone to frustrate the Aztecs into 37.3 percent shooting. But a frenetic pace and San Diego State’s man-to-man defense limited UNLV to 27.1 percent (19 of 70).

The Lady Rebels led 48-47 with 6:52 to play. But San Diego State went ahead and made it a two-possession game after Quenese Davis’ two free throws with 34.2 seconds left.

Davis finished with a team-high 20 points for the Aztecs, and Paris Johnson set an MWC record with nine blocked shots. She had six by halftime.

UNLV guard Dominique Harris injured her left knee midway through the first half. She didn’t return, and her prognosis will be known Monday.

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914.