UNLV’s 3rd Thanksgiving Classic opens with win over Big 12’s UCF

It took three tries but this year’s UNLV Lady Rebels have their first resume-building win of the season.

UNLV beat UCF, 71-52, Wednesday, Nov. 27 from the Thomas & Mack Center as part of the program’s third Thanksgiving Classic. In the team’s last outing, the three-time defending Mountain West champions were beaten by 30 points at the hands of Oklahoma.

“Bounce back game for us,” head coach Lindy La Rocque said. “We’ve been working really hard since our last game trying to be really intentional and focused on what we need to improve upon. Just extremely proud of our group for coming out here and doing it.”

Earlier this season, UNLV dropped both of its games against schools from Power conferences. Now the team has one win in three such scenarios as La Rocque improved her coaching record in such games to 3-9.

Overall, the Lady Rebels are now 5-2 in the early going of the season. This year’s Thanksgiving Classic will continue Friday, Nov. 29 against the East Carolina Pirates. Tip-off is set for 2:30 p.m.

“Our games aren’t getting easier,” La Rocque said. “This was one of them. It’s as much of me being proud of them but also a confidence boost for our team of we’re not second-guessing all of what we’ve done all year, we just have to be better at it and this game was proof of that. We know we can play with anyone in the country.”

In order to turn the tide, UNLV had to go from being bullied to being the bullies. It started early against UCF with a quick 8-0 run in the first parts of the first quarter. That run to take a 10-4 lead was stretched behind the team’s press defense which it hopped into about midway through the first quarter.

Sophomore McKinna Brackens had a sequence that saw her poke the ball loose and dive on the floor to complete the steal. She’d race to the other end of the floor as the trail runner and drill a three-pointer from the right wing.

“In practice coach [Roman Owen] — if there’s a loose ball and you’re not diving on it, it’s the end of the world,” she said. “When I see one, it's just like, ‘Get on the ball.’ For the three I was open, I’ve gotta knock that down.”

Behind Brackens’ play, the Lady Rebels’ lead would grow to 23 points in the second quarter before it was trimmed to 15 before the halftime break. In the third quarter, the Knights would get as close as nine points as part of their comeback effort.

”It’s a game of runs and they’re a very good team,” La Rocque said. “We anticipated that so the challenge to the group was, ‘How are we going to respond?’ Frankly, in our last game we didn’t respond. We just kind of went away.”

Brackens helped UNLV fight off the visitors’ valiant chase as she secured her second career double-double in the third quarter. She’d finish with a game-high 19 points and game-high 14 rebounds in 27 minutes.

“Tremendous game for McKinna,” La Rocque said. “She’s been working really, really hard. We talk about improvement from freshman to sophomore year, she is going up for Most Improved [and] it’s because of the work she puts in.”

While Brackens did a lot of damage on the offensive side of the ball while maintaining as a defensive mainstay on the other end. She was a part of a defensive effort that saw her team hold UCF without a field goal on eight straight attempts late in the third quarter.

Entering play, the Knights held an undefeated 6-0 record to open the new year.

Senior guard Kiara Jackson handed out seven assists in the first half while battling some rough shooting from the field to start the game. At one point of the third quarter, she had four points on just 2-for-11 from the field with two misses from beyond the arc. Soon after, she’d uncharacteristically clanked two technical foul free throws.

”The free throws are a little bit of an anomaly,” La Rocque said. “Shooting technicals are hard, it’s weird — it’s no one else on the line, you know everyone is looking at you so they’re hard. I just kind of left her alone and called the next play for her because she’s not coming out. We’re not shying away from her being the leader of our group.”

Jackson would flirt with a double-double by the final buzzer with 12 points and nine assists.

Backcourt teammate Amarachi Kimpson was the final player in double-figures with 18 points on 8-of-13 from the floor.