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WBK: UNLV Beats New Mexico 64-50

Jan. 21, 2012
UNLV Athletics

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - UNLV used a 24-6 run at the end of the first half and beginning of the second to take control on the way to claiming a win at The Pit for the third straight year, 64-50 over New Mexico on Saturday afternoon in Mountain West women's basketball action. With the win, the Lady Rebels' moved to 15-5 overall and are 3-1 in the conference, including 3-0 in MW road games. UNM meanwhile dropped to 6-12, 0-4 in the league.

New Mexico opened up hitting three of its first five from the floor for a 9-3 edge four minutes in. UNLV then took advantage of its size in the paint, as an 8-0 run off four layups gave the Lady Rebels their first lead of the game. New Mexico grabbed the edge back twice, leading by three at 14-11, and again at 17-14 on a layup by Jayme Jackson at the 9:53 mark. Jamie Smith answered on the other end with a trey, the first of nine unanswered points for UNLV. The Lady Rebels would actually outscore the Lobos by an 18-6 margin over the final 9:43 of the opening stanza, taking a 32-23 lead into halftime. Smith finished the half with 11 points, nine off three treys, while UNM was held to just 29.6% from the floor (8-of-27).

UNLV kept up the scoring coming out of halftime, posting the first six points of the second half. A layup from Sandrine Nzeukou gave UNLV a 38-23 edge with 18:18 to play. The lead would remain between eight-15 points for the Lady Rebels for the next nine minutes of the game. The Lobos took advantage of a scoring drought by UNLV to slowly climb back into the contest, and a jumper from Caroline Durbin made it a 47-41 score with 7:34 left on the clock.

The Lobos were still hanging in the game after Durbin scored on a layup cut UNLV's lead to 50-43 at the 5:31 mark. The Lady Rebels then took over from downtown, as back-to-back-to-back treys from Smith, Kelli Thompson and Mia Bell pushed the advantage back to 59-43 with under three to play. Bell added another trey at the 1:31 mark, and UNLV would close out the 14-point road victory. The final win margin was the largest over the Lobos since a 68-45 win in Las Vegas on Feb. 27, 2003, and was by the second largest margin ever for UNLV at The Pit, trailing only a 70-55 win on Feb. 17, 1980.