Columnist Dean Juipe: A doubly disappointing day for Lady Rebels

Dean Juipe

Monday, Feb. 9, 2004 | 9:53 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Looking to take at least one step forward, the Lady Rebels, instead, took two steps back.

So go ahead and mark down Sunday's meek attempt to "Pack the Mack" and upstage the Mountain West Conference's leading team as doubly disappointing.

A decisive loss, 72-55 at the hands of Utah, and a meager crowd on a day when many more were expected puts the UNLV women's basketball program back in perspective. The Lady Rebels are neither ready for the AP or USA Today Top 25, nor on the verge of becoming a commercial success.

What they are is a decent team, now 5-2 in league play and 16-4 overall, yet one that has to be smarting after being embarrassed in its own building by both the visitors and the empty stands.

UNLV was looking to make at least two statements: that it could hang with a perennially tough team and that it could lure enough fans to make playing at the Thomas & Mack Center -- rather than the Cox Pavilion -- a worthwhile venture on at least an occasional basis.

But both notions came up failures.

Utah, 7-0 and 17-4, shut off the Lady Rebels' double-low-post game and rode the brilliant play of its star, Kim Smith, to a victory that clearly stamps it as the league's best team. Smith, a diligent worker who utilizes an assortment of twisting maneuvers to get herself free to score and rebound under the basket, had 14 points by halftime and finished with 20 for the afternoon.

Her would-be rival for MWC player of the year honors, UNLV's RanDee Henry, had but one field goal and scored only six points in a futile attempt at keeping pace with a stalwart player who is still only a sophomore.

Henry's down-low partner, Sherry McCracklin, had but 12 points, leaving the pair -- who went into the game ranked Nos. 1 and 4 in the conference in scoring -- with a mere 18 points between them.

If not for Sheena Moore's 21 points, the Lady Rebels might have been obliterated. They were down six points, at 9-3, right away; down by as many as nine, at 28-19, in the first half; and never ahead throughout the 40 minutes of play, with Utah going on a 17-0 run late in the game to undeniably pull away.

As if that wasn't bad enough -- and it was, actually -- there was this silly marketing ploy that kept the game from being played to what would have been a respectable crowd in the Cox. But put the game in the Mack, with its 18,000 seats, and have only a fraction of those filled and you have a recipe for a sour-dough pie.

In truth, the only part of the T&M that was packed -- despite $1 tickets and children admitted free -- was confined to sections 116, 117 and 118, which are immediately behind the teams' benches.

Oh, well. About all the Lady Rebels can do is shrug and attempt to carry on. They're certainly having a nice season (and were among the "teams also receiving votes" portion of the top-25 polls) and they could still earn an invitation to the NCAA tournament.

They're also reflective of the upward direction the program has enjoyed since head coach Regina Miller took over six seasons ago. Remember, it wasn't all that long ago that LaDonna McClain's two teams were going 4-23 in back-to-back seasons, and Miller was asked to come in and clean up the debris.

She's 109-57 since coming here, and that's way better than what anyone expected.

But the road isn't all paved with gold, as Miller and her team were reminded in a game that was televised in the Mountain and Pacific time zones, albeit on an obscure digital-only channel.

Perhaps the game escaped widespread attention. Maybe no one was watching. Maybe no one saw the beating Utah handed out or the mostly deserted arena.

Not many saw it in person, that's for sure.