Styles fitting into role

Most basketball coaches feel fortunate to have one go-to player. UNLV women's coach Kathy Olivier has several.

Senior Markiell Styles is the latest Lady Rebel to get hot, and just in time. UNLV has only two nonconference games remaining, and Olivier hopes her 6-foot-3-inch center will help power her team to a strong start in Mountain West Conference play.

Styles, who is having her best season, has led UNLV in scoring twice in the last four games. She's averaging 6.6 points and 5.8 rebounds, mostly off the bench, and seems to be front and center whenever the team is on a roll.

"What makes Markiell so good is that she wants the ball," Olivier said. "She really wants the ball, and she kind of gets mad when she doesn't get it. She posts up big, and she gets those big eyes."

Styles, from Oakland, Calif., agreed that she's in a groove, though she downplayed her recent success.

"There's still a lot of room for improvement," she said. "But I'm happy with what I'm doing. I'm just trying to get rebounds and block out. My main focus is to help the team get victories."

Though Olivier expected good things upon recruiting Styles in 2009 out of Ohlone Junior College in Fremont, Calif., she said Styles has "pleasantly surprised" her.

"She works her butt off. She has quick feet and good hands for a post player," Olivier said.

Styles' feet have gotten quicker partly because of improved conditioning and intense training. She said he has lost at least 40 pounds since leaving junior college, and her improved endurance has helped keep her on the court. She is averaging 20.7 minutes and has played in all 14 games, starting twice.

"I feel she could be the best sixth man in the conference this year," Olivier said. "When you have an NBA team with a great sixth player, you're going to have a good team. Markiell likes that role."

Styles said her most valuable contribution is rebounding.

"I get good positioning and I go back up strong," she said. "That's what I take pride in."

But Styles said she won't be satisfied unless she finishes her career by achieving her ultimate dream.

"I really want to win the conference, make a run in the (Mountain West) tournament and go to the NCAA Tournament," she said. "I really think we can get there."

Olivier, who never has been fond of making predictions, seemed to agree.

"We were 10-3 before Christmas," said Olivier, whose squad won just 11 games last season. "I'm thrilled. Do I think we can get better? Yes, and that's even more exciting."

Styles said her team learned valuable lessons from its losses to Georgetown, California and Northwestern.

"Every time after a hard loss, we have come back and had a good game," she said. "We learn from our mistakes, and that's not something that happened last year. We have a lot of team chemistry, and that's what's different from previous seasons."

Indeed, the Lady Rebels seemed to fold under pressure last season.

"Last year, we just went into a downward spiral when we lost," Styles said.

UNLV visits UNR on Monday before its nonconference finale at home against Fresno State on Jan. 6. The Lady Rebels begin Mountain West play at Wyoming on Jan. 11.