Lady Rebels get first taste of victory

Wednesday, Dec. 31, 1997 | 12:01 p.m.

LaDonna McClain doesn't believe in moral victories, but the UNLV women's basketball coach had to admit that a lot of good came out of the Lady Rebels' 80-47 loss to third-ranked Connecticut last Saturday.

UNLV responded to its worst defeat of the season with its best performance to date -- and first victory -- in an 86-60 win over a depleted Loyola Marymount squad Tuesday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

"I think the game with UConn helped us," McClain said after the Lady Rebels' most productive offensive showing of the year. "We did a lot of good things against UConn ... and I certainly think we put things together and did a lot of really good things tonight. We really needed that win."

The Lady Rebels (1-10) were able to consistently work the ball inside to post players Liz Wolfe and Angalete Dye against a Lions team that was missing three of its starters due to injuries.

Wolfe, a 6-foot-3 junior, responded with a career-high 22 points and 10 rebounds. Dye matched her season high with 16 points and led the Lady Rebels with 14 rebounds.

"That's something that we've really worked on, that's something that we had to get better at," McClain said of her team's inside game. "Our guards did a good job of creating some things, too. I think they stepped up and took care of the ball, and when we take care of the basketball, we're a pretty good team."

UNLV, which was averaging nearly 27 turnovers per game going into its final nonconference contest, turned the ball over only seven times in the first half in building a 39-31 halftime advantage. The trend continued in the second half as the Lady Rebels committed a season-low 14 turnovers in the game.

Like McClain, Wolfe said the win came at a crucial time as the team prepares to open Western Athletic Conference play Thursday at Wyoming.

"Tonight's win is humongous for us because now we start the WAC in two days," Wolfe said. "This is very big -- a great Christmas present ... we've been waiting for this for a long time.

"Just after Christmas, coming back to an 0-9 season wasn't too exciting, but this will carry us for quite a while now."

The Lady Rebels were forced to play without starting forward Amy Wunderlich, who left the team Tuesday morning to tend to a family emergency. Wunderlich is the team's third-leading scorer, averaging 8.2 points per game.

"We had to play without Amy ... and I think the kids stepped up and really responded to the challenge," McClain said. "They did a lot of good things tonight and it's their win.

"You've got to give them credit because they never laid down, they never quit. They started working really hard, and right after Christmas a lot of good things started happening for us."

UNLV, which never led by more than eight points in the first half, led by only seven, 51-44, with 12:20 remaining in the game. The Lady Rebels went on a 11-0 run during the next four minutes to extend their lead to 18 and the Lions never challenged.

In addition to Wolfe and Dye, seniors Taneisha Gossett (15) and Toby Girard (11) also reached double figures for the Lady Rebels, who shot a season-high 52 percent (38-of-73) from the field.

Senior forward Meghan Kenny led the Lions (3-7) with 26 points and was the only LMU player to score in double figures.