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UNLV’s Lady Rebels picked up a fourth straight win as part of a 3-0 start to conference play. More importantly, the program earned its 20th straight road win in Mountain West play.
In the second of a two-game road trip UNLV dumped Boise State, 61-57, Saturday, Jan. 4 from ExtraMile Arena. It has now won eight straight games against the Broncos as head coach Lindy La Rocque improves to 8-1 in the coaching career against the conference foe.
It also went down as the first home loss for this year’s Boise State team.
“Any conference road win feels great,” head coach Lindy La Rocque said. “I just know this was a huge freakin’ win for our team. It’s been a long week since Christmas, we haven’t had an off-day. It’s been 10 days straight.”
The Lady Rebels are now 11-4 on the year, sitting in the second spot of the conference’s standings.
In a matchup for first place, UNLV will travel back home for a meeting against Colorado State. That game will take place Wednesday, Jan. 8 from the Cox Pavilion with tip-off slated for 6:30 p.m.
On the heels of that contest, the program will head out for its third road game in its last four outings
“I’m trying to help remind them and connect the dots of the hard things and tough things we felt in non-conference play,” La Rocque said. “We’ve learned our lessons and we are tough because we’ve been tested. When we get into other people’s environments that’s when we lean on it.
”If we don’t play those hard non-conference games, we don’t win today.”
UNLV got hit in the mouth early in the form of some potent offense inside the paint. Boise State won the points in the paint battle, 14-4, in the first quarter.
“They’re post players are big,” La Rocque said. “We had a tough time finishing at the basket today. We just have to show some great toughness and continue to attack. it was a battle down there for our forwards and I thought they battled all night long.”
Broncos center Abby Muse set the all-time rebounding record for her team in the second quarter.
In totality, Boise State was outrebounded by UNLV to the tune of 44-31. This includes a, 14-5, advantage in the offensive rebounding category.
“We were aggressive to the ball,” La Rocque said. “I thought our guards helped us rebound. Most of the 50/50 balls we were getting. We knew we needed to do that to try to come out with a victory especially on the road.”
It was a defensive slugfest that saw both teams shoot under 40% from the field. The Lady Rebels was outshot by its opponent, 38% to 34% in the winning effort.
To close the first half, Boise State was held to just one field goal make in its last 15 attempts. It also opened the third quarter with three straight misses.
The home team found itself down just a point after an early 6-0 run in the fourth quarter. Senior guard Kiara Jackson shouldered the old, finishing the night with 18 points on 7-of-17 shooting.
“She willed us to a win,” La Rocque said. “Everything wasn’t gong her way either — she missed a couple of layups and some little shots that she normally makes. But she stayed aggressive and people had her back.
”I thought we had some big time plays down the stretch from [forward McKinna Brackens], from [sophomore guard Amarachi Kimpson]. The free throws were huge from Kiara and Rachi.”
Kimpson drilled all four of her attempts in the final 29 seconds of the win on her way to 15 points with seven made free throws to go along with five rebounds.
“There’s something every game where it’s like, ‘We didn’t know she needed to learn that and she’s learned that and she puts that under her belt,’” La Rocque said. “Just to be cool and calm under really extreme pressure, on the road [in a] big time environment to secure and win the game. I mean those free throws in the last minute there, we were six-for-six and we needed every single one of them.”
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