UNLV takes aim at righting ship

Friday, Dec. 19, 2003 | 10:15 a.m.

Texas-San Antonio and South Florida will provide the opposition for the Lady Rebels tonight and Sunday afternoon games at Cox Pavilion, but it just as well may be the Harlem Globetrotters and Washington Generals.

No slight to the Roadrunners of the Southland Conference or the Bulls of Conference USA, but UNLV coach Regina Miller says this might be one weekend where the Lady Rebels are more concerned about fixing their own problems than worrying about the ones the opposition present.

"Those are some of the things we said at practice," said Miller, whose 5-2 Lady Rebels will entertain UTSA (2-5) at 7:35 tonight. "We want to play the way we want to play and hopefully make these teams come in and play our game.

"Sometimes, I think we focus too much on the opponent and lose sight of what we do best."

Such as Monday at Loyola-Marymount, where UNLV had its four-game winning streak halted by the 7-1 Lady Lions. LMU hit seven of its first 10 shots to put the Lady Rebels in a 25-16 hole they couldn't dig out of.

"We made some critical mistakes on the road and although we didn't need to play a perfect game, we had to play catch-up the majority of the game," Miller said. "We don't want to put ourselves in that situation."

The hope is that if the Lady Rebels' Big Three -- forwards RanDee Henry and Sherry McCracklin and guard Sheena Moore -- continue their solid play, UNLV shouldn't need their rally hats this weekend.

Henry, UNLV's leading scorer, had a season high 29 points on 11-of-17 shooting at LMU and also pulled down 10 rebounds. McCracklin was limited to eight points and six rebounds, ending her string of six consecutive double-doubles, but UNLV received a huge boost from Moore, who scored 17 points in her first game back from a suspension.

Henry was one of several UNLV athletes who were penalized for making unauthorized long-distance phone calls with a stolen university PIN. At LMU, she didn't need a calling card to dial long distance, as four of her baskets were 3-pointers.

"She did some good things to get into the flow ... and we're happy to have her back," Miller said.

"We're going to have to have our big 3 playing pretty consistently and the others playing their roles. If we can do that, I'll be happy."