Lady Rebels show togetherness in exhibition win

UNLV women's basketball coach Kathy Olivier sent her players onto the court Monday night hoping to learn a few things about her 2010-11 squad.

If nothing else, she learned that her team is perfectly capable of crushing a Division II team.

Markiell Styles had 13 points and seven rebounds to help the Lady Rebels cruise past Notre Dame de Namur of Belmont, Calif., 74-57 in a preseason exhibition game at Cox Pavilion.

"This is the first year where I've seen a sense of togetherness I haven't seen in the past," said Olivier, whose team jumped out to a 39-27 halftime lead. "If you have that early and you're successful, it's going to win you some games."

Olivier said the win helped maintain her hope that UNLV will improve on last season's 11-20 record to compete for a Mountain West Conference title.

"We did some good things tonight," said Olivier, whose squad went 4-12 to finish eighth in league play last year. "But we're still going to have to get a whole lot better."

UNLV trailed just once, after Argos point guard Natellie Saia opened the game with a 13-foot jumper for a 2-0 lead.

But the Lady Rebels scored the next six points and began pulling away when senior forward Sandrine Nzeukou capped a 10-0 scoring spurt with a fast-break layup to give her team a 26-14 lead midway through the half.

"We were just working on man defense," Olivier said. "And we were trying to be disciplined."

The plan worked.

Though Notre Dame de Namur made a 7-0 run early in the second half to cut the deficit to 43-34, the Lady Rebels controlled the remainder of the game.

Jamie Smith, who had 11 points and six rebounds, said the win was an important momentum-builder.

"Tonight was a good start for us," she said. "We just wanted to go in there and see how we would play together. I'm pretty happy overall."

Kelli Thompson added 13 points and 13 rebounds for UNLV, and Danielle Miller had 10 points.

The Argos got 18 points from Saia, and 14 points and 17 rebounds from Pilar Mullins.

The Lady Rebels open their season Saturday with a game against Butler in the Iowa Hawkeye Challenge in Iowa City.