Lady Rebels’ target: Win out

Monday, March 1, 2004 | 9:47 a.m.

A carnival-type atmosphere permeated Cox Pavilion following the Lady Rebels' 84-48 victory against Air Force Saturday night, as fans stayed around even longer than usual to mingle with the UNLV players and bid seniors InFini Robinson and Padra Strong farewell following their last regular-season home games.

But then somebody had to spoil the ambiance by bringing up the Lady Rebels' 59-54 loss to New Mexico Thursday night.

"We can't even go there," UNLV coach Regina Miller joked with a reporter. "We wanted to put that behind us and there you go, bringing it up."

Kidding aside, if the Lady Rebels (19-6, 8-4) do permit themselves to look back instead of forward during the next week to 10 days, they will most likely focus on their second loss to the Lobos as the one that put their NCAA tournament hopes in "run-the-table" mode.

Until Thursday night, there was a feeling that if the Mountain West were to get two bids to the Big Dance, and Utah went on to win the conference tournament as expected, then the second one probably would come down to UNLV and New Mexico.

Of course, it still could. But with the Lobos having jetted past the Lady Rebels into second place, combined with their regular-season sweep of UNLV -- plus the fact that Albuquerque will host first- and second-round regional games and New Mexico's presence would guarantee sellout crowds -- it would appear that the Lobos would have the inside track on a second berth.

And make of this what you will, but New Mexico's Janice Ruggiero is also on the NCAA tournament selection committee.

"I feel like the loss to New Mexico really killed us," Robinson said after scoring 11 points in front of an appreciative Cox turnout of 1,059. "The way I see it, we've got to win out. But it can be done."

Miller agreed with her point guard -- to an extent.

"The best way to get in is to win the tournament," she said, "There's no question then. But I'm still hoping for three (Mountain West tournament bids)."

That would appear unlikely, although there's still time for the Lady Rebels to impress some people in high places -- the NCAA tournament committee, for instance -- even before the teams head to Denver for the MWC shindig a week from Wednesday. UNLV will conclude the regular-season with a tough road trip to first-place Utah and Brigham Young on Thursday and Saturday.

The outing against hapless Air Force (3-22, 0-12) was little more than a tune-up for what lies ahead. Although the Falcons jumped to leads of 6-0 and 9-4, they were insignificant, given the AFA women don't run the Princeton offense like the men's team.

Miller decided to let the Lady Rebels work out the kinks rather than use timeouts to get their attention, and UNLV ultimately went on huge scoring runs of 14-0 and 19-0 to take total command.

UNLV's Big Three of RanDee Henry, Sheena Moore and Sherry McCracklin scored 25, 18, and 14 points, respectively, for the Lady Rebels, who shot 53 percent from the field and checked Air Force on 31-percent shooting.

But the highlight of the game was the slender Strong's first career 3-point basket, a long jumper from the left side in the second half that sent her teammates into hysterics on the bench.