UNLV doesn’t give up in loss
Trailing by 18 points late in the first half Saturday, UNLV’s only apparent hope was to keep the final outcome from getting out of hand.
The Lady Rebels did more than that, threatening to steal a victory from Texas Christian, coming back all the way to within three points.
UNLV fell short, but can build on its 66-61 loss at Cox Pavilion to one of the Mountain West Conference’s top women’s basketball programs.
TCU (10-5, 2-0 MWC) has made eight consecutive postseason appearances, including seven NCAA Tournaments.
Horned Frogs guard TK LeFleur made 5 of 10 3-pointers and finished with 20 points. In the end, TCU’s 11-for-23 3-point shooting proved too much for UNLV to overcome.
“The last couple games, we’ve been down by even more, so I didn’t think we were down by a lot, which is really sad,” Lady Rebels coach Kathy Olivier said. “But our team continues to battle and we continue to compete, and that’s what we ask from them.
“They’re very coachable, they stayed together, and we just competed.”
UNLV (7-8, 0-2) trailed 37-19 with 2:48 to play in the first half and 37-23 at halftime. Olivier stressed getting the ball inside to center Shamela Hampton against the Horned Frogs’ 2-3 zone.
Hampton had six points and five rebounds at halftime, but was a second-half force. She finished with 20 points and 14 rebounds for her league-leading ninth double-double.
“In the locker room, (Olivier) told us, ‘We can do this. We can win,’ ” Hampton said.
Getting the ball inside opened the perimeter for forward Jamie Smith, who had 11 second-half points to end with 13 points and 11 rebounds.
“In the beginning, they were covering all the gaps, and our offense is an attack offense,” Smith said. “In the second half, we started attacking more.”
The Lady Rebels got as close as 64-61 on Hampton’s basket with 10.3 seconds to play. But Helen Sverrisdottir hit two free throws with eight seconds left to get TCU out of danger.
Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2914.