Lady Rebels rout Fresno State in coach’s 100th win — PHOTOS
It took the top-seeded UNLV women’s basketball team the opening quarter to get a feel for its Mountain West tournament quarterfinal Monday.
The Lady Rebels then did what they’ve done in most conference games this season. They took control as soon as they found their rhythm.
No. 21 UNLV, after a tight first quarter, scored the first 11 points in the second and never looked back in an 83-35 victory against Fresno State at the Thomas & Mack Center.
The Lady Rebels (28-2) will play Colorado State in a semifinal at 5 p.m. Tuesday.
“For us, the emphasis is just to continue to do the right thing,” UNLV coach Lindy La Rocque said. “I thought we did a great job. The first quarter it’s just trying to figure out a little bit of the balance of the game, a little bit of a slow start, but then once we really got locked in defensively, that allows us to get out in transition.”
Four Lady Rebels scored in double figures in the victory. They were led by 16 points each from freshman guard Amarachi Kimpson and junior forward Alyssa Brown.
Junior point guard Kiara Jackson scored 15 points and senior center Desi-Rae Young added 10. The win was UNLV’s 13th straight and was also La Rocque’s 100th in her fourth season with the program.
“Our team played well. This is the biggest game because we don’t get the next one without (getting a win) in this one,” La Rocque said. “They had great intention and focus to come out and get the job done.”
UNLV shot 51.9 percent (28 of 54) from the field and made 12 of 21 3-pointers. The Lady Rebels held Fresno State to 21.3 percent shooting.
“When we execute on defense, it puts a lot less pressure on our offense,” Brown said. “We really keyed in on what they wanted to do today and took away their first and second options. It just made it easy and fun.”
Fresno State (15-18) briefly led 7-6 late in the first quarter. UNLV used an 8-2 run to regain the lead. Kimpson forced a steal in the final three seconds of the quarter and Jackson converted on a floater to put the Lady Rebels ahead 19-13 at the break.
“(Amarachi) was playing great defense,” Jackson said. “She made her cough it up, and I was right there, and I was like, ‘Oh, shoot, I have to shoot it.’ And I threw it up there and it went in.”
UNLV didn’t let up in the second quarter. It opened on an 11-0 run to grow its lead to double digits. The Lady Rebels closed the half on a 12-0 run the final 4:26 thanks to their relentless defense and took a 44-20 halftime lead.
“Whether it’s the end of the first quarter or first half, we always want to finish strong,” La Rocque said. “If there’s two minutes, three minutes left, let’s get stops and scores. Coming out of halftime, it’s kind of the same message of, ‘Let’s start this thing out right, get some scores and some stops and we can give ourselves some cushion.’”
UNLV scored the first 13 points of the third quarter. That capped off a 25-0 run to push its lead to 57-20. All 11 Lady Rebels who saw action logged at least eight minutes.
“It’s huge,” La Rocque said. “We’re going to get some great recovery. No one is too banged up, so we should still be hopefully pretty fresh for tomorrow.”
Brown added nine rebounds and four assists and made all three of her 3-point attempts. Kimpson, the conference’s freshman of the year and sixth player of the year, grabbed six rebounds and finished with five assists.
UNLV held Fresno State’s leading scorer Mia Jacobs to seven points.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.