0-9 Lady Rebels to battle UConn

Friday, Dec. 26, 1997 | 10:27 a.m.

It just doesn't get any easier for the UNLV women's basketball team. The Lady Rebels, winless in nine games this season, play host to the University of Connecticut, which is 10-0 and ranked third in the nation, Saturday night at 7 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

"At this point in time, it's probably the worst timing in America," UNLV head coach LaDonna McClain said of the matchup with the perennial powerhouse of women's college basketball.

"But at the same time, we have nothing to lose. We've got to find something positive out of it and that is we need to go in to compete and try to make a game of it. If we do that, then we come out with something positive."

That is not to say, however, that McClain is approaching this game as a sure loss for her struggling Lady Rebels.

"You don't want to ever to go into a game (thinking) like that so we're trying really hard to approach it as a game to play," McClain said. "Certainly, if we ever decide to pull everything together, we're going to be a very effective team."

Effective, however, may not be enough against the Huskies, who are coming off a 94-78 victory last weekend over then-No. 12 Stanford. In that game, Huskies senior Nykesha Sales set a school and Big East Conference record by scoring 46 points.

Sales is leading the Huskies with a 20.5 points-per-game average, freshman forward Svetlana Abrosimova is averaging 13.1 ppg and sophomore forward Stacy Hansmeyer is averaging 10.6 points a game.

"They're pretty well balanced and they have a very strong bench and they keep coming at you," McClain said of UConn. "They're just a very good team."

That means, McClain added, that the Lady Rebels can't concentrate solely on Parks.

"She's just unbelievable," McClain said of Parks. "To score 46 points on any given night is incredible but to do it against Stanford says a lot right there. She can score at will and she can create a lot of things (but) she is extremely unselfish -- she'll make plays, also. She had a huge night and she certainly is going to continue that.

"But if you concentrate on her, the big kids inside will kill you and if you concentrate on them, they've got kids on the perimeter who will hurt you. You just have to play a solid game against them -- that's why they're ranked number three in the nation."

The Lady Rebels, on the other hand, are mired in a funk that has seen them post an 8-53 mark over the past two-plus seasons. McClain, in her second year of attempting to rebuild the once-proud program, is 4-32 since replacing Jim Bolla.

"Certainly, I knew we had a lot of work to do," McClain said. "But I didn't think it would take this long."

But McClain is quick to point out that her team's struggles this season is not the result of a lack of effort.

"We're struggling right now and, to a certain degree, part of that is that the kids want to win so bad that sometimes they play real tentative and almost afraid to lose," she said. "We've got to play past that and we've just got to keep working. We're nine games into the season and the WAC is coming up right around the corner and we've got to continue to stress the things that we're doing that could make us better."

Senior guard Taneisha Gossett is leading the Lady Rebels with a 10.7 points-per-game average while junior forward Angalete Dye is averaging 9.7 points and a team-high 9.8 rebounds per game.

By playing one of the top programs in the country, McClain and her players will get a good look Saturday night of what they are working toward, and McClain said she hopes the game will serve as a valuable learning experience.

"Certainly, you can learn a lot of things from a game like that, from an intensity standpoint and getting a good look at where we need to be and some things that we need to do," McClain said. "I think we have to learn to play at that level.

"(The Huskies) are very good, they've got a lot of size, they've got a lot of speed. We get to go up against, without a doubt, one of the best teams in the nation and there's something exciting about that. We've just got to get better."