‘Best thing ever’: Lady Rebels clinch 3rd straight NCAA berth — PHOTOS
The UNLV women’s basketball team was closing in on winning its third straight Mountain West tournament championship and making its third straight NCAA Tournament appearance.
But senior center Desi-Rae Young had to make one more play.
The top-seeded Lady Rebels were less than a minute away from officially punching their ticket with a 66-49 win over No. 7 San Diego State on Wednesday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Young, the conference’s player of the year, stole the ball at midcourt and fell in pain as she made a contested layup.
After being down for a few minutes, Young popped up and waved to the home crowd to begin the celebration of another conference title and NCAA Tournament berth.
“I was cool, it was just a little break for the team,” Young said with a chuckle. “You know, things happen, but I’m good.”
Young scored a game-high 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to help UNLV (30-2) pull away from San Diego State (22-13) to clinch the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
“This is the best thing ever,” UNLV coach Lindy La Rocque said to the crowd at the postgame trophy presentation. “We worked really hard to get this moment and lift this really heavy trophy. It’s all worth it. To see the smiles on their faces, that’s why I do this.”
The Lady Rebels will learn their seed and opening-round opponent for the NCAA Tournament at 5 p.m. Sunday during the NCAA selection show.
“Winning is hard. Winning championships is really hard, especially when you’re expected to,” La Rocque said. “This group handles it with grace, with commitment and willingness to do whatever it takes. It takes a lot of sacrifice.”
Junior point guard Kiara Jackson added 14 points and seven assists, and fifth-year guard Ashley Scoggin added 13 points for UNLV. Junior forward Alyssa Brown added 11 points and was named the conference tournament MVP.
“It’s hard to do it three times in a row,” Brown said. “Our conference, they recruit to play us at this point, so I feel like we constantly adapt to try and find ways to score.”
After a 20-20 first half in which neither team led by more than six points, UNLV created some much-needed separation to start the third quarter.
Young hit a pair of tough turnaround jumpers in the paint, and the Lady Rebels knocked down their first two 3-pointers of the game during a 12-0 run to go ahead 34-24 with six minutes left in the third quarter.
San Diego State played most of the third quarter without leading scorer Adryana Quezada (14.1 points per game), who had three fouls, but managed to stay within striking distance.
“Our defense definitely kept us in it,” said Young, who had six steals. “We did a great job of defending and knowing our personnel.”
The Aztecs cut the Lady Rebels’ 10-point third-quarter lead in half, 42-37, entering the fourth. UNLV then knocked down three 3-pointers during an 11-0 run to start the quarter to go ahead 53-37.
Young scored eight fourth-quarter points to help the Lady Rebels pull away.
“We expect to win games. That’s what we want to do,” Young said. “This is our third time here, and we expected to be here for a third time, so winning games is our highest expectation.”
UNLV did not make a 3-pointer in the first half but made 6 of 11 shots from behind the arc in the second half.
“The last two years were great, but this year was totally different,” La Rocque said. “We had to find our own path. We’ve got to make different sacrifices, and whatever it takes to get here, you have to have people that are willing to do it.”
UNLV made three of its first five shots and held a 7-4 lead early, but San Diego State managed to match UNLV’s physicality to keep it close while both teams struggled to find their rhythm on offense.
The Aztecs attacked the basket and held UNLV to one field goal in the final 6:45 of the opening quarter to hold a 12-10 lead after the first 10 minutes. The Lady Rebels shot 4-of-14 in the first quarter and missed eight of their last nine shots.
Quezada and Kim Villalobos utilized their midrange game and kept working inside offensively to keep the Aztecs ahead.
Quezada had eight first-half points and Villalobos added six. The duo combined to make 7 of 12 first-half shots to put San Diego State ahead 20-14 with 6:57 left for the largest lead of the first half. But the Aztecs wouldn’t score again before halftime.
UNLV held San Diego State scoreless over the final 6:57 and managed enough offense driving to the basket to go into halftime tied at 20.
“Our defense was great, so that was the message,” La Rocque said. “Our defense is awesome. We have to keep sticking with that.”
UNLV shot 19-of-31 (61.2 percent) in the second half. Young shot 52.9 percent, Jackson shot 50 percent, and three of Scoggin’s five field goals were 3-pointers.
“Ashley hit some huge shots, really huge shots,” La Rocque said. “And then Desi, I told her at halftime, ‘We’re going to you. You’ve got us here, and you’re going to take us home.’ She made some huge plays and some rebounds and some tough finishes.”
The Lady Rebels’ run of dominance is the third three-peat in Mountain West women’s basketball history.
La Rocque, 102-21 in four seasons as UNLV’s coach, had turned around a Lady Rebels program that had one NCAA Tournament appearance (2002) from 1995 to 2020 before she became the coach.
It will be UNLV’s third time it has gone to the NCAA Tournament three years in a row (1984-86, 1989-91).
“It’s the testament to the people that we have here, the players that we have, the staff that we have,” La Rocque said. “It’s great. We’re in a fortunate position where our players, our staff, we haven’t felt a lot of losing. We want to keep it that way.”
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
