Lady Rebels look to bounce back vs. BYU

Thursday, Feb. 5, 2004 | 10:04 a.m.

If you have to be smarting about a loss at this stage of the season, you'd rather it be just one instead of four.

That basically is the difference between the UNLV women's basketball team and its counterpart from Brigham Young, which will provide the opposition for the Lady Rebels at 7:30 tonight at Cox Pavilion.

A disappointing loss in front of a sellout crowd of more than 18,000 at New Mexico Saturday dropped UNLV (15-3, 4-1) out of first place in the Mountain West. But the Lady Rebels still have to be considered one of the conference's surprise teams.

The Cougars, on the other hand, have been its biggest disappointment. BYU, which was expected to battle Utah for the MWC title, is just 1-4 in league play and 11-8 overall.

A series of close losses -- three of the Cougars' four conference defeats have been by six points or fewer -- basically has BYU in a must-win position as the MWC season reaches the halfway point.

"We kind of have the same issues. They're young and so are we," said UNLV coach Regina Miller. "They were picked second in the conference. But I don't want them to start (getting it together) until after (tonight)."

BYU's rough start aside, what has to be at least a little troubling to Miller and the Lady Rebels is that BYU has had their number since Jeff Judkins, a former Utah Ute and Boston Celtic, took over as coach in Provo.

The Cougars have won seven of the past eight meetings between the two, including a thrilling 66-64 overtime victory in last year's MWC tournament quarterfinals when BYU point guard Erin Thorn hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to cap a sensational 34-point performance.

But that Thorn in the Lady Rebels' side is gone, and BYU has struggled without its leader from a year ago.

Veteran players such as Danielle Cheesman, a preseason all-MWC pick, have been inconsistent, although sophomore Ambrosia Anderson has emerged as a scoring threat with double-figure efforts in each of her five MWC outings and a 14-point average.

"Thorn was their leader, and when your leader's gone, sometimes a very young team will struggle," Miller said. "But they're a scary team. We'll have to get a jump early and try to get them into an uptempo game."

The Lady Rebels will also have to put the tough New Mexico loss behind them. UNLV led most of the way and opened several big leads but could never break open the game. And when the Lady Rebels converted on just one of their last eight possessions, the Lobos capitalized, pulling out the win in the final 20 seconds.

"It's been hard on us," Miller said. "Hopefully, we can come up with that fire. I think now we understand we have to play the entire 40 minutes, and it doesn't matter if you're home or away."

NOTES: The Lady Rebels are 11-0 at home this year and 28-3 (.903) since moving into Cox Pavilion three years ago. ... The loss at New Mexico marked the first time in 11 games that UNLV trailed in the second half. The Lobos held the lead for 19 seconds at the beginning of the half and 20 at the end. ... UNLV's RanDee Henry, the MWC's leading scorer (19.9 ppg) is the only player in the Mountain West to score in double figures in every game this year. ... Both teams are coming off losses, as BYU dropped a 66-62 decision to first-place Utah at home on Saturday.