After a five-game winning streak and a strong season, the Lady Rebels couldn’t keep up against Wyoming Monday night, as the seventh-seeded Cowgirls ended UNLV’s season in the Mountain West Quarterfinals, by a final score of 56-72.
The 2 seeded Lady Rebels held an early 5-2 lead just over two minutes into the game, but then managed just one more basket the rest of the quarter. Wyoming meanwhile would connect on three unanswered treys, the third of which put the Cowgirls up 11-5.
The Lady Rebels attempted to rally after falling behind by 15 points at the beginning of the third quarter. They scored eight unanswered points to close within 36-29 at 5:29 with a layup by Bailey Thomas.
The Cowgirls responded with a 15-4 run, the last nine again coming off three straight threes, to end the third quarter up 54-36. They set a new Mountain West tournament record with a 15-32 performance from behind the arc for a shooting percentage of 46.9%.
UNLV Desi-Rae Young, the Mountain West freshman of the year, managed to score a career-high of 21 points, off 7-of-10 shooting and 7-of-11 at the free-throw line with an added eight rebounds.
The Lady Rebels were hurt by the bench performance from Wyoming, as the Cowgirls held a 27-4 advantage. Three Cowgirls each hit a pair of threes off the bench in the game.
"This one hurts really bad. We've got some upset young ladies in the locker room, which is a good thing. Because we're really proud of what we've done and how far we've come. But we're upset because we expect to win,” Head Coach Lindy La Rocque said. “That's the culture we're setting, and the standard and the expectations that we have for our program going forward. That we expect to win these kinds of games, and while we're not there yet we're pretty dang close."
The loss left the Lady Rebels with an overall record of 15-9 for Coach La Rocque’s first season with the team, ranking her second in the nation for the most wins by a first-year head coach.
The Lady Rebels look forward to improving in the off-season and coming back next year stronger and determined for a better overall record in the new season.
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