January 23, 2012 by Danny WebsterÂ
Strong defensive showing propels UNLV to 15th win of the season
If the Lady Rebels were forced to play on the road for the entire conference season, they might not be totally opposed to that.
Jamie Smith led the team on Saturday in the 64-50 win against New Mexico, scoring 17 points and grabbing nine rebounds. This was the Lady Rebels’ third straight win in as many years at The Pit in Albuquerque, N.M., and was also their third road conference win of the season.
Markiell Styles also recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The Lobos (6-12, 0-4) opened up the game with a 9-3 lead but the Lady Rebels answered back with an 8-0 run on four consecutive layups to take an 11-9 lead with 12:42 left in the half.
With the score tied at 17, UNLV (15-5, 3-1) began to pull away on a 15-6 run, highlighted by a threepointer by Smith to close out the half with a 32-23 lead.
The Lady Rebels picked up where they left off in the first half by opening the second with an 8-2 run to take a 40-25 lead. UNM responded with a huge 16-7 run to cut the UNLV lead to six at 47-41 with about 7 minutes left in the game.
Coming out of the time out, both teams struggled to score a basket for the next couple of minutes, until a layup from Alana Cesarz gave UN LV a 50-41 lead.
Moments later, back-to-back three-pointers from Smith and Kelli Thompson sealed the game for the Lady Rebels.
The UNLV defense forced 21 New Mexico turnovers and turned those into 19 points. The passing efficiency of the Lady Rebels was also on display as they dished out 19 assists compared to UNM’s eight for the entire game, the same amount that UNLV guard Mia Bell had for the night.
With this victory, the Lady Rebels have won 15 games for the first time since the 2005-06 season when they won 18 games.
They’ll go for win number 16 on Wednesday as they return to the Cox Pavilion to take on Mountain West newcomer Boise State at 7 p.m. The Broncos will present a tough test for the Lady Rebel guards on the defensive end as Thompson and Bell will try and contain the BSU dual scoring threat of Kati Isham (15.7 PPG) and Lauren Lenhardt (14 PPG).
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