UNLV stands tall after a slugfest

Thursday, March 25, 2004 | 9:33 a.m.

If NASCAR ever decided to hold a race indoors, it probably would look a lot like Wednesday night's UNLV-Western Kentucky Women's National Invitation Tournament quarterfinal game at Cox Pavilion.

In a game that featured more lead changes than the Coca-Cola 600, the Lady Rebels and Lady Toppers traded paint for 40 minutes at breakneck speed with UNLV finally holding on for a 78-75 victory.

It was the Lady Rebels' third consecutive WNIT victory by three points or fewer and put them into the Final Four of the Little Dance against the winner of tonight's Saint Joseph's at Iowa State game.

If the Hawks win, there's a good chance the Lady Rebels would get to host their fourth consecutive home game in the tournament on Sunday. But if the Cyclones are victorious, UNLV probably will find itself heading to the Heartland this weekend.

"If we've got to go on the road, then we've got to go on the road," said forward RanDee Henry, who led the Lady Rebels (25-7) with 23 points and 12 rebounds. "Now is not the time to be mad about it. Now is the time to get it done."

UNLV was able to get it done against scrappy Western Kentucky (20-14) despite allowing a 20-3 run in the first half, and despite forgetting how to attack a zone defense and how to get back on defense after a made basket.

Fortunately for the Lady Rebels, they were only short-term lapses. And in an up-and-down game such as Wednesday's, where each possession was no more significant than the previous one, they only made it more difficult to subdue the opposition, not impossible.

"They're an up-tempo team that likes to shoot real quick, so we knew they were going to give us the ball back," Lady Rebels coach Regina Miller said in reference to overcoming WKU's 37-30 halftime lead.

It didn't take long to do it, either. After the visitors went up 41-32, UNLV took off on a 10-0 run just after the break to set up a see-saw second half. There were 10 ties and 18 lead changes, the last when Henry sank two free throws to give the Lady Rebels a 70-68 edge with 2:46 to play.

They never trailed after that but had to withstand two 3-point attempts by Lady Toppers' sniper Leslie Logsdon in the final frenetic seconds before cutting the cake with their appreciative -- and apparently quite hungry -- fans at center court.

Logsdon, who broke the WKU record for career 3-point baskets in Western's 104-87 victory against Memphis on Sunday, hit 5-of-9 from beyond the arc before the final flurry. With time running out, she forced up a 25-footer over two defenders that hit the side of the backboard, triggering a scrum for the rebound.

Somehow, the ball wound up right back in her hands for a less-contested shot that glanced off the rim.

"I think one of their players thought the game was over," Logsdon said of the loose-ball scramble that gave her a second chance to be a hero. "I had about two seconds ... the shot just came up a little short."

In the first half, it was the Lady Rebels who came up a little short, at least after WKU switched to a collapsing zone defense. UNLV had had little trouble getting the ball inside against the smaller Lady Toppers and took a 20-10 lead before Western coach Mary Taylor Cowles called time and switched defenses.

The Lady Rebels immediately ground to a halt on offense, and when talented Tiffany Porter-Talbert (27 points) began attacking the basket and Logsdon continued filling it up from beyond the 3-point arc, UNLV appeared in serious trouble at halftime.

"That (WKU's zone) kind of threw us off a little bit, because we had gotten used to teams in this tournament playing us man-to-man," Henry said.

Miller said she jogged the Lady Rebels' memory about how to attack the zone during her halftime speech. UNLV used its "short corner" series, funneling the ball to substitute forward Kameca Simmons on the baseline, where she had the option to shoot, drive or, when the WKU defense collapsed on her, to kick it back to Henry or Sherry McCracklin in the post.

The Lady Rebels shot 50 percent from the field in the second half (14-for-28) and eventually forced Western Kentucky out of its zone and back to man-to-man.

Simmons made 5-of-6 from the field and finished with 15 points. McCracklin added 15 points and senior point guard InFini Robinson 13 as UNLV's "Big Three" turned into the Big Five.

Sheena Moore, who scored a career-high 33 points in the Lady Rebels' 68-66 second-round win against Rice, played only 27 minutes due to foul trouble and scored just 9 points against WKU.

The Lady Rebels enjoyed a big edge at the free-throw line, sinking 27-of-37 while WKU made just 5-of-10. Part of the discrepancy in fouls was that it's hard to draw one when you are shooting layups, which is what the Lady Toppers were doing during much of the second half.

During one stretch, WKU beat the Lady Rebels down the court for three consecutive uncontested layups following a made free throw and two baskets.

"We work real hard (to score) and then we give up a chipper," Miller said. "We had to call a timeout to try to fix it and fortunately, we were able to do it."

And so the Lady Rebels continued to survive and advance, which is what playing basketball in March is all about.