Lady Rebels overcome sluggish start

Clad in special breast cancer awareness uniforms, the UNLV women’s basketball team looked downright ugly for the first 17 minutes Saturday. Thanks to junior point guard Mia Bell, the Lady Rebels survived a first-half scare to pull out a 65-60 victory over New Mexico at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Bell had 22 points, five assists and three steals to lead UNLV, which showed no signs of life until finishing the first half with an 11-2 run that Lenita Sanford capped with a tip-in at the buzzer. The Lady Rebels (19-8, 7-4 Mountain West Conference) led 29-24 at halftime, but struggled to put away the Lobos (8-17, 2-9) in the second half.

The slow start was a bit of deja vu for UNLV coach Kathy Olivier.

“It got a little scary,” said Olivier, whose squad missed 15 of its first 16 shots Wednesday before rallying for a home win against Texas Christian. “But in conference play you’ve got to earn everything. You’ve got to execute perfectly.”

Though the Lobos entered the game in seventh place in the Mountain West, they led throughout much of the first half and took their biggest lead when Jayme Jackson nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make the score 22-18 with
3:18 remaining.

But Bell, who scored 13 points in the first half, capped a 9-0 UNLV run with a three-point play with 25.1 seconds to go.

“I just wanted to be aggressive,” Bell said. “They weren’t really guarding me, so I knew I was going to have the opportunity to score some points.”

The Lady Rebels established the tempo early in the second half, taking a 55-43 lead on Bell’s driving layup with 3:24 remaining. But they still couldn’t quite put the game away, as Caroline Durbin was fouled while shooting a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left. She nailed all three resulting three free throws to cut the Lobos’ deficit to 62-58.

“We got a little sloppy at the end,” said Olivier, whose team finally sealed the victory with a free throw by Bell with eight seconds to go. “We’ve got to learn how to sustain it for 40 minutes. That’s what great teams do.”

The Rebels, who were unaware at tipoff that second-place Colorado State had lost to Wyoming earlier in the day, moved within one game of the Rams
(8-3) while remaining three games behind first-place San Diego State (10-1).

Olivier said she was more focused on her team’s performance.

“As much as it is about the other teams, it’s totally about the Lady Rebels,” Olivier said. “I just try to think about what we need to do.”

Kelli Thompson helped UNLV with 17 points, and Sanford added 12 points and 11 rebounds. Senior forward Jamie Smith, who tied the program record with her 119th start, finished with four points and eight rebounds.

Durbin led New Mexico with 19 points, but fouled out in the final minute.