Cowgirls defeat Lady Rebels in sloppy effort by both sides

Too bad for UNLV the basketball season didn't end in January.

Now the Lady Rebels must hope February unfolds much better than it has begun, so they can take momentum into the all-important March.

They failed to capitalize on chances to pull away from a turnover-prone, poor-shooting Wyoming team Saturday at Cox Pavilion, falling 51-47 in overtime.

Coupled with Wednesday's 74-62 defeat at Colorado State, UNLV (17-7, 5-3) has lost both games to open the month and back-to-back games for the first time this season.

"February's not a very good month for us right now," UNLV coach Kathy Olivier said. "We've just got to keep believing. That's my concern because this is a good basketball team."

This loss was particularly maddening because Wyoming (9-12, 5-3) was there for the taking. The Cowgirls shot 38.5 percent and committed 20 turnovers, but those numbers were better than UNLV's misfires.

The Lady Rebels made 31.5 percent of their shots and had 25 turnovers, surrendering 28 points on giveaways.

"If we had cut down on those turnovers, it would've been a totally different game," said Jamie Smith, who led the Lady Rebels with 11 points. "I don't think it would've gone into overtime."

UNLV led most of the game, but Brenna Freeze banked in a 3-pointer with 7:29
left in regulation to give the Cowgirls a 35-33 advantage, their first lead since scoring the game's initial basket.

The Lady Rebels sent the game into overtime at 43-43 on Kelli Thompson's 3-pointer with 38 seconds left, her only basket. She was 1-for-10.

Wyoming scored the first two baskets in overtime to go ahead 47-43. But UNLV, behind 49-47, had a chance to tie or win in the closing seconds.

Thompson missed a 3-point attempt, but the Lady Rebels retained possession when the ball went out of bounds off a Cowgirl with 8.4 seconds remaining.

Thompson inbounded the ball to Mia Bell, who instead of driving the lane, tried to make a difficult pass to Lenita Sanford.

"I should've attacked," Bell said. "Instead of attacking, I was looking to pass and not being aggressive."

Bell's pass went to Wyoming's Chaundra Sewell, who was fouled and made both free throws to clinch the victory.

UNLV had its chances well before overtime. The Lady Rebels took control early with 11-2 and 17-11 leads before going 6:42 without a field goal. They went ahead 27-17 early in the second half but failed to put away the Cowgirls.

Sandrine Nzeukou joined Smith as the only Lady Rebels to score in double figures, finishing with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Kayla Woodward led Wyoming with 16 points.

"I'm surprised we didn't come home with a 'W,' " Olivier said. "I loved our effort. I loved our crowd (1,034). I feel really bad that we had a great crowd that was extremely supportive, and we couldn't pull it out at home. That really bothers me more than anything."

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@review
journal.com or 702-387-2914. Follow him on Twitter: @markanderson65.