The UNLV Lady Rebels defeated the Cal State Los Angeles Golden Eagles 106-45 in their preseason exhibition game on Nov. 3 at the Cox Pavilion.
The Rebels come off a 15-8 overall record from their shortened 2020-21 season with Head Coach Lindy La Rocque becoming the first Lady Rebel coach to earn Mountain West (MW) Coach of the Year during her rookie season.
La Rocque is also the only coach in UNLV history to go undefeated on the road in conference play (9-0) as she enters her second season with the Lady Rebels. Last season, the team finished second overall for MW, despite being picked ninth in the preseason poll.
The Lady Rebels hope to continue their stride of accomplishments this season, starting off the year with an impressive exhibition at-home victory.
UNLV started the game off strong going on a 11-3 run.
Offensively, the Lady Rebels took advantage of the Golden Eagles’ poor defense to convert easy fastbreak points. Essence Booker and Justice Ethridge both combined for 17 of the 29 points in the first quarter.
Defensively, the Lady Rebels put the pressure in the front court early, resulting in three turnovers with the score at 29-7 to close the first quarter.
To begin the second quarter, the Lady Rebels fed the ball inside the paint to the bigs down low to score easy points and went on a 11-6 run to push the score 40-13.
UNLV crashed the boards offensively to get rebounds, resulting in easy second chance points, 10 in total for the quarter.
The Golden Eagles couldn’t find the bottom of the net and tried to drive to the basket, but the Lady Rebels covered the paint, not letting them get any easy baskets. The Lady Rebels closed out the first half 56-21.
The Lady Rebels attacked the paint for easy layups to open the second half of the game. Again, UNLV came out aggressively on defense causing a turnover in the first 30 seconds of the quarter, offensively causing the Golden Eagles to foul twice within the first two minutes.
The third quarter ended with the Lady Rebels holding a strong lead of 81-27.
The Lady Rebels went on a 10-3 run (91-30) to begin the final quarter of the game. Again, the Lady Rebels focused on attacking the basket and giving the ball down low to junior Keyana Wilfred, who had ten of the 23 points in the quarter.
Defensively, UNLV became lazy resulting in five turnovers and letting the Golden Eagles shoot from three. In the final two minutes of the ball game, the offense came together to score easy fastbreak points.
Ethridge led the Lady Rebels with 16 points and 12 rebounds while Booker had 15 points and Desi-Rae Young had 14 points.
The Lady Rebels had 52 points in the paint and 25 second chance points. UNLV shot 51.4 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from beyond the arc.
Up Next
The Lady Rebels will be traveling to Tulsa, Okla. to face Oral Roberts University Golden Eagles on Nov. 9 at 5 p.m. to truly kick off their 2021-22 season.
