UNLV women finally home

Thursday, Dec. 4, 1997 | 9:35 a.m.

After starting the season with four road games -- and four losses -- the UNLV women's basketball team finally opens its home season Friday afternoon with the four-team Las Vegas Club Shootout at Lied Gymnasium (formerly South Gym).

The Lady Rebels open the Shootout at 3 p.m. against Youngstown State (5-1); Middle Tennessee (2-2) plays Xavier (3-1) in Friday's other first-round game at 5 p.m.

Although her Lady Rebels are winless, UNLV head coach LaDonna McClain said she believes her team is capable of winning its own tournament.

"If you're looking at records as any indication, are we the underdogs? Yes," McClain said. "But we're on our home court and, as we learned on the road, that makes a significant difference.

"I think if we come in to play, we're going to have a successful tournament. Don't get me wrong (Youngstown State) is 5-1 -- but I think we can play with anybody when we put our minds to it. It's our tournament and we want to win it."

McClain, in her second year of rebuilding the Lady Rebels program, said she has seen progress from her players -- who are coming off a 73-43 loss to No. 3 Louisiana Tech and a 83-57 defeat to Texas A&M in the Shreveport Shootout.

"Actually there were a lot of positives, I think," McClain said of last weekend's tournament. "Defensively, I think we played very, very well -- I thought we put a good game on the court. Our problem right now is putting the ball in the basket. It's early in the season and I think some of that is (players) pressing too hard and trying to make too many things happen.

"I think when you have a team that hasn't been successful, they almost try too hard to force things to happen."

The Lady Rebels are making a meager 32 percent of their field-goal attempts through their first four games.

One bright spot on offense -- and defense -- for the Lady Rebels has been the play of junior forward Angalete Dye, who leads UNLV in scoring (12.3 points per game) and rebounds (12.3 per game).

"Angie Dye has really stepped up and done some things for us," McClain said. "If we can get the four people playing around her (to do the same), I think it's going to be interesting."

The winners of Friday's games will meet at 5 p.m. Saturday in the championship game while the first-round losers will play Saturday at 3 p.m. for the consolation championship.