March 1, 2007
Lady Rebels win three straight for the first time this season

UNLV used a 21-4 second half run to rally past second place New Mexico, as the Lady Rebels earned their second big home upset in just over a week in a 70-59 Senior Night victory Thursday night in Mountain West Conference women’s basketball action from the Cox Pavilion.  

Sequoia Holmes scored a game-high 22 points, while Latosha Pace came off the bench with 14 in her final home game, including four treys, to give UNLV its first-three game win streak of the season, which started last week in a 76-71 overtime victory over first-place BYU on Feb. 25.  The win was the third straight for UNLV over the Lobos in Las Vegas, and improved its record to 13-14 overall, 7-8 in league play.  New Mexico dropped to 20-8, and are in a four-way tie for second at 10-5 in the MWC.

UNLV held a 32-31 halftime lead, but the Lobos came out smoking to begin the second half, hitting six of their first seven shots, including two three-pointers.  Katie Montgomery’s trey at 15:16 capped a 14-2 run and gave New Mexico its largest lead of the game at 11, 45-34.  Down 47-38 with 13 minutes to play, Shamela Hampton scored three straight before suffering a knee injury and leaving the game.  Following a New Mexico layup, Pace hit a trey as part of seven unanswered points for UNLV.  Dionne Marsh broke the steak with a layup to push the edge back up to 51-50, but the Lady Rebels scored the next nine points of the game, including six off a pair of Pace three-pointers, for a 59-51 edge with 5:37 on the clock.

Julie Broidy nailed a trey on the other end to close New Mexico within five, but the team would proceed to miss five of its next six free throws and three straight shots from the floor, while UNLV took advantage to build up a 10-point lead, and held on for the victory.  Over the final 13 minutes, the Lobos would turn the ball over seven times, shoot just 3-of-16 from the floor, and 6-of-11 at the free throw line.

Things looked good for UNLV as it began the game by scoring the first six points of the half.  The next nine minutes saw a very tight ball game however, as it was tied five times before New Mexico took its first lead of the game on a Broidy free throw, 19-18 with 8:15 on the clock.  The Lobos would actually open up a seven-point edge, 30-23, with 3:24 to play in the half.  Holmes then took over the game, as following a jumper from Faye Muller, she nailed a three-pointer, grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on a short putback, and with four seconds left in the half, stole the ball from Briody at halfcourt and raced all the way in for a layup at the halftime buzzer for a 32-31 UNLV lead. She would finish the first 20 minutes with 16 points while shooting 7-of-11 from the floor.  

Holmes finished the game 9-of-16 from the floor and added five rebounds and five steals.  Hampton was the next highest scorer after Pace, scoring nine points in just 13 minutes of action, while Muller added eight points and 13 rebounds.  UNLV finished the game shooting 47.2% (25-of-53) from the floor, 6-of-11 from three-point range, and recorded a season-high 15 steals.

Briody and Marsh both finished with 17 points and nine rebounds to pace the Lobos, while Montgomery added 12 points.  No other Lobo scored more then six points however.  New Mexico shot just 56.5% (13-of-23) at the line and turned the ball over 20 times.

UNLV will finish the regular season on Saturday in Fort Collins, Colo., taking on Colorado State at 12 pm (PST).

-UNLV-