Inconsistent Lady Rebels watch a big one slip away

Adam Candee

Monday, Dec. 20, 2004 | 9:14 a.m.

In December, these losses can be called building blocks. In a couple of months, they'll come with coupons for free therapy.

So happy holidays to the Lady Rebels, for sure, but the calendar is turning with speed.

UNLV blew separate double-digit leads in both halves and failed to convert the winning free throw try with less than a second in regulation in falling Sunday to Iowa State, 86-78 in overtime at Cox Pavilion in the Duel in the Desert tournament.

That the Lady Rebels even stuck around that long is amazing when considering how poorly they executed for most of the game. And in a season that already includes near-misses against powerful North Carolina and Minnesota, this one may be the toughest to accept.

"We could have put them away," UNLV guard Shana Coleman said. "It's hard when we're so close and we come up with a loss."

The Lady Rebels had chances to put away the Cyclones for the second time in nine months despite shooting 33 percent even with 28 offensive rebounds, despite 3-point specialist Latosha Pace missing 11 consecutive tries from the arc, even despite forward RanDee Henry taking a nasty elbow to the head and playing with four stitches.

UNLV won at Iowa State in last year's WNIT semifinals, but both teams now look vastly different. Rated 22nd in the nation in a preseason magazine, the Lady Rebels (4-5) are maddeningly inconsistent as players move in and out of the lineup with injuries while the Cyclones (8-1) look poised and confident with many key returners.

Even given all of that, UNLV guard Nikki Hitchens went to the free throw line for two shots with 0.9 seconds remaining and UNLV trailing 69-68, but improbably in position to win. Hitchens missed the front end before converting the second shot, and then watched as Iowa State overthrew its inbounds pass down the court.

The ball appeared to be on its way out of bounds -- and back under the Lady Rebels' basket with a chance for one more shot -- before UNLV sophomore Kisha Lee grabbed it to end regulation. Such mistakes are the inexperienced type that UNLV coach Regina Miller understands her team must endure until healthy.

"We're expecting our freshmen to play like seniors," Miller said. "Is it fair? I'm not sure if it is all the time."

Iowa State made short work of overtime, converting all six of its shots including two 3-pointers. Cyclones guard Anne O'Neil scored seven of her game-high 29 points in the extra period, finally subduing the Lady Rebels after torturing them throughout the second half.

Guard Lyndsey Medders and forward Mary Fox both scored 12 points for Iowa State, which repeatedly fought back despite trailing 21-9 just eight minutes in and 42-32 early in the second half. The Cyclones cut the first deficit with hot shooting and then began using their marked size advantage to get easy scores after halftime.

"You're not going to always necessarily keep good teams down," Miller said.

Iowa State taunted with its trademark 2-3 zone defense throughout the game, daring the smaller Lady Rebels to come into the lane or to shoot long jumpers. The results were mostly predictable, as UNLV shot 9-of-34 from 3-point range. Pace, who led the Lady Rebels at 37 percent (7-of-19) from the arc before Sunday, shot 1-of-14 from long distance as UNLV strayed from the game plan.

"Our goal was, let's not get into a 3-point shooting contest with them," Miller said. "I knew we had to take some from the outside. Latosha Pace took a lot of them. Some were ill-advised and some we wanted her to take in the flow."

The Lady Rebels scrapped to get second-chance shots, but could not convert many of those either. They had just nine field goals in the second half, falling behind 67-60 with 3:49 to play.

But UNLV refused to give in to their first big deficit of the game. Guard Sheena Moore, who scored 20 points in playing all 45 minutes, hit a transition 3-pointer to begin the comeback and guard Shana Coleman sank a floating jumper from the lane to give UNLV a 68-67 lead with 51 seconds to play. Coleman led the Rebels with a career-high 21 points

Medders answered with a spinning 12-foot jumper off a pick and roll with 31 seconds left, setting up the Rebels' final sequence that began with Moore missing a hasty jumper from the free throw line and ended with Hitchens being fouled trying to put back the rebound with less than a second left.

With their chances at big-name victories now gone, the Lady Rebels know their best chance to get to the NCAA tournament is by winning the Mountain West Conference. Without all-MWC forward Sherry McCracklin, who is still sidelined with a partially torn Achilles tendon and could be well into conference season, that task will be difficult.

And as much as the Lady Rebels don't want to blame injuries, each of these close calls to powerful teams makes it that much harder to play the what-if game, thinking about where they would be with McCracklin. Even Miller, never one for excuses, allowed talk of health into her post-game comments.

Moore does not budge when asked if these close games might be different with a full-strength UNLV team.

"I would like to say that, but we can't use injuries as an excuse," Moore said. "Our coaches teach us, no excuses."

Then she smiled and added about the injured players, "But it would be nice to have them."