Lady Rebels’ comeback bid falls short in loss to San Diego State

Last year, in a nationally televised game at Cox Pavilion, the Lady Rebels rallied from 16 points down to defeat a San Diego State squad that would advance to the NCAA's Sweet 16.

On Tuesday, in another nationally televised game at Cox, UNLV again stormed back from a double-digit deficit to the Aztecs. But this time its comeback fell short in a 55-52 loss.

Lady Rebels guard Erica Helms missed a potential tying 3-pointer as time expired when her attempt from the left wing clanged off the back of the rim.

"It was a good look," UNLV coach Kathy Olivier said.

San Diego State's Courtney Clements had a chance to seal the win at the free-throw line with 11 seconds left. But after making her first attempt for the 55-52 lead, she missed the second.

Clements, who scored 13 of her game-high 16 points in the second half, sank two free throws with 2:12 left to give the Aztecs a 54-47 advantage.

But Helms banked in a 3 from the top to make the score 54-50 with 2:01 to play.

Sandrine Nzeukou, who led UNLV with 16 points on 7-for-8 shooting and had a game-high 10 rebounds, sank two free throws to make the score 54-52 with 1:09 left.

Jamie Smith then came up with a steal for the Lady Rebels (7-10, 0-3 Mountain West Conference) and attempted a go-ahead 3, but it was deflected out of bounds by the Aztecs with 20 seconds left and only four on the shot clock.

UNLV called timeout to set up a play inside for Tia Morrison, but the Aztecs denied her the ball and the Lady Rebels turned it over on a shot-clock violation.

Trailing 25-20, San Diego State went on a 17-1 run bridging the first and second halves to take a 37-26 lead and never trailed again.

UNLV took 29 more shots than San Diego State but made only two more, finishing 21-for-71 (29.6 percent) from the field.

The Aztecs (7-8, 1-2) had a lot to do with that, finishing with an MWC record-tying 14 blocked shots.

San Diego State's Paris Johnson had 11 points and nine rebounds.

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.