UNLV Women Cut Down Nets In Mountain West Hoops Tourney Final Wednesday; Lady Rebels Off To NCAAs With Win Over Colorado State
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
UNLV’s women are going dancing.
The Lady Rebels cut down the nets at Thomas & Mack Center with a 75-65 win over Colorado State in the Mountain West final Wednesday to claim an automatic bid to the NCAA basketball tournament.
The women hoopsters started slowly, falling behind 11-2 to Colorado State. But UNLV’s shooting touch began to kick in, led by Las Vegas product Essence Booker and her 25 points.
Colorado State made a run at the end of the third quarter and climbed back to within a point in the fourth quarter.
But the Lady Rebs closed out the tourney final with a 7-0 run to wrap up the 10-point win. Booker, a Spring Valley High grad who transferred back to Las Vegas after college stints at Nevada and Ball State, won the tourney’s MVP.
It’s the Lady Rebels’ first appearance in the NCAAs since 2002.
The win meant so much to UNLV women’s coach Lindy La Rocque, the Durango High student-athlete star who went on to Stanford before returning to coach the Lady Rebels.
The Aces’ star forward and former WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson watched the game at Thomas & Mack.
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They all come to Las Vegas this week with big dreams.
No matter how bad your regular season was, your college basketball team comes to Sin City in March amid hopes of spring renewal.
Take Oregon State. The 12-seeded Beavers came into their game against in-state rival Oregon with a lowly 3-27 record, including a rough 1-19 record in the Pac-12.
Their mascot even tried to bring a chainsaw (OK, it looked kinda fake) into T-Mobile Arena.
The chainsaw didn’t help.
The Ducks ended Oregon State’s season with an 86-72 win over the Beavers.
Before Oregon State said goodbye to its season, the Stanford Cardinal came back from a halftime deficit to narrowly defeat Arizona State, 71-70.
Over at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center, about two miles to the east, the Mountain West hoops tourney started with Nevada knocking out New Mexico, 79-72, while Utah State dispatched Air Force, 83-56. Fresno State defeated San Jose State, 69-67 in overtime, to advance.
At 7PM, the UNLV Lady Rebels play Colorado State for the Mountain West women’s basketball championship.
More later
