Lady Rebels beat Air Force

Thursday, Feb. 5, 1998 | 9:02 a.m.

When Steve Corraro was handed the UNLV women's basketball interim head coaching job, he said he wouldn't make any drastic changes. What Corraro hadn't counted on was the Lady Rebels players had a different idea.

Seemingly brought together by the unexpected resignation of head coach LaDonna McClain on Monday, the Lady Rebels played with more intensity and more emotion than they have all season in a 70-62 Western Athletic Conference victory over Air Force Wednesday night at Lied Gymnasium.

"We're coming together as a team," Corraro said after UNLV improved to 3-7 in the WAC and 4-17 overall. "That was the most enthusiasm I've seen in a few years and that's what I wanted to see.

"We had a bad practice (Tuesday) and I got phone calls from three-quarters of the team saying, 'Steve, we're sorry, we're preoccupied but we want it.' For an athlete or a kid to say that, that meant the world to me."

The Lady Rebels didn't make it easy in Corarro's first game. After pulling out to an 11-point lead at halftime, UNLV couldn't seem to get a shot to drop for the first 14 minutes of the second half and Air Force took a four-point lead with 6:10 remaining in the game.

After hitting 47 percent of their field-goal attempts in the first half, the Lady Rebels made only 8 of 29 (28 percent) in the second half.

"I didn't expect a good shooting night tonight because of all the stuff they've been through -- and they've been through a lot," Corraro said. "We got the shots, we've just got to learn to hit them. We missed a lot of layups."

With the score tied 62-62 with 2:48 left, the game turned into a march to the free-throw line for the Lady Rebels, who hit 6 of 10 free throws in the final 2:38 to secure the victory.

Angalete Dye led all scorers with 21 points and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds for the Lady Rebels. All 11 UNLV players scored in the game for the first time this season.

Elycia Hall led the Falcons (5-15, 0-10) with 12 points and Sara Fortna added 10 points.

The Lady Rebels play at Hawaii Saturday at 9:05 p.m. (PST) in a WAC cross-over game that will not count in the conference standings.