Henry helps UNLV remain perfect in MWC

Monday, Jan. 26, 2004 | 9:59 a.m.

After finally giving in and going to the doctor on Friday, perhaps it was appropriate that RanDee Henry gave her teammates a shot in the arm on Saturday night.

A nasty cold precluded Henry, the Mountain West's leading scorer, from attaining her 18.5 scoring average in UNLV's 92-87 victory against Colorado State Thursday night. But against Wyoming in front of a Cox Pavilion-record crowd of 1,441, Henry was feeling a lot more chipper.

It showed in the box score, as Henry equaled her collegiate career-high with 33 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to spark the Lady Rebels to a 67-47 victory.

It was the ninth consecutive win for UNLV, which remained undefeated at home (11-0) and improved its conference and overall records to 3-0 and 14-2 heading into key road games at Air Force and New Mexico on Thursday and Saturday.

So Saturday's victory, in keeping with the theme of the evening, was just what the doctor ordered.

"I was sick last game and got some medicine and I was feeling a lot better," said Henry, a transfer from Detroit Mercy who is well on her way to being named Newcomer of the Year in the MWC. "We wanted to leave town with a win, so I knew I really had to suck it up."

Henry made 13 of her 22 field-goal attempts, including two long 3-pointers. She was more aggressive on the backboards than usual. And she also used her court savvy to make two steals at the top of the key on consecutive Wyoming possessions late in the second half that led to lay-ups and broke the visitors' spirit.

"RanDee Henry was a terror. She was awesome," said UNLV coach Regina Miller, whose team is off to a 3-0 start in the MWC for the first time.

"The thing with RanDee is, although she gets her points, she does all the little things, too. We talked about her grabbing some rebounds and she became very aggressive with her effort in going to the board and it made a difference."

It also made a difference that her teammates realized that Henry's was the hot hand. After struggling against deliberate Wyoming during much of the first half, the Lady Rebels made a halftime adjustment, reversing the ball on the perimeter in order to get it into Henry in the low post.

Once she got the ball in the paint, it was pretty much a done deal.

"One thing I learned from earlier this season is not to force anything, so I just wait until it comes to me " said Henry, a versatile 6-foot-1 junior from Detroit. "So all my teammates were getting off, and they (Wyoming) started to back off on me. The next thing you know, I started getting all my points."

Wyoming (6-11, 2-2), which was humbled 77-26 by Texas Tech earlier this year, used a patient offense to keep the score from getting out of hand. The Cowgirls spread out when they had the ball, usually milking the shot clock to the very end, when they would launch a 3-pointer.

At first, the strategy worked, as Wyoming built an early 7-point lead. But the Cowgirls finished with nearly as many shot-clock violations (5) as 3-point baskets (6).

"They average 50 points a game and we average 74, so it was a matter of if we were going to play their game or play our game," Miller said. "I was concerned a little bit in the first half."

The Lady Rebels led just 26-23 at the break before exerting some additional defensive pressure in the second half which made the tempo more to their liking.

"I thought that (reserve guard) Neljah Clark did a great job turning up the intensity, and that made them play faster," Miller said. "That took them out of their system and that led to some opportunities for us ... we got some of the breakaways and easy baskets we like to get."

Nothing against half-court basketball, but Henry said she'll leave that style to the Air Force and Princeton men.

"We don't play half-court basketball, that's not us," she said. "If we can get some steals, we can play Rebel basketball.

"All we gotta do is play basketball, and we'll be all right."