Lady Rebels look to regroup after stunning loss

Adam Candee

Monday, Nov. 22, 2004 | 9:12 a.m.

Work the equation in reverse to explain the Lady Rebels' puzzling 60-58 home loss to Central Florida.

A team that wins with up-tempo transition basketball plays a stagnant halfcourt game Friday night, shooting 33 percent for the game and worse than that in the second half. The team plays that slow game because it never creates opportunities to run up and down the court. And it does not get those chances because of passive defense that allows the opponent to score more than half of its points in the paint.

OK, puzzle solved.

"They brought a lot more energy than we did," UNLV forward RanDee Henry said. "It's kind of sad to say, but our defense, it was very much lacking."

UNLV (1-2) flushed its positive progress from last week's road trip to Seattle, where the team battled with No. 16 Minnesota before losing and defeated a tough South Carolina squad. The Lady Rebels then came home and lost at Cox Pavilion for just the fifth time in 38 games at the building, prompting head coach Regina Miller to tell her team that its strong opening road trip now means "nothing."

Miller pointed right at her team's defense to explain the loss, imploring the players to take pride and ownership in that part of the game.

"It's kind of like turnovers," Miller said. "I can run them 1,000 miles, but until they decide it becomes important, then we're going to continue to turn the ball over. It's the same thing (with defense)."

UNLV never led over the final 9:17 of the game, pulling within two points of the Knights (1-0) with 27 seconds left on two free throws by true freshman forward Sequoia Holmes. After a chess game of timeouts, the Lady Rebels gave the ball to junior guard Sheena Moore for the final possession, but Moore's driving layup missed and Henry could not convert an offensive rebound chance.

The rebound tipped out of bounds to UNLV with 1.8 seconds left, but Holmes' layup try was blocked as time expired.

Henry led the Lady Rebels with 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Latosha Pace added 11 off the bench, hitting a trio of 3-pointers. Holmes -- whom Miller called "best player on the floor for UNLV" -- finished with nine points and six rebounds.

But on a night when Moore goes 2-for-13 from the field for four points and UNLV shoots 9-for-33 (27 percent) despite 11 offensive rebounds in the second half, UNLV obviously did not play the type of frenetic offensive game that it needs to succeed.

"That's going to come from your defense," Miller said. "And when we did have an opportunity to run, our guards did not push it as hard as they need to push it consistently."

The Lady Rebels started a quick lineup with three guards and the athletic Holmes at power forward, accounting for the indefinite loss of center Amy Loftus to an ankle sprain. The injury situation worsened early in the second half when defense-minded guard Nejlah Clark left with a knee injury suffered in a collision.

"One time, I looked out there and I've got three freshmen on the floor," Miller said, with Kisha Lee joining Pace and Holmes.

Clark's absence played a role in allowing the Knights' Celeste Hudson to control the game in the second half en route to 22 points, six rebounds and five assists. But even with Loftus and Clark joining standout forward Sherry McCracklin and guard/forward Nikki Hitchens on the injured list, the Lady Rebels are unwilling to point to those losses as reasons for this loss.

"You have to realize that that's not the issue," Henry said. "That's not the problem. Even if we had some of the people that are injured, if they didn't work hard, then it would have been the same result. That game was just, flat out, effort."

UNLV returns to the court Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Cox Pavilion against UT-Arlington in its first of two games of the UNLV Lady Rebel Shootout.