Utah swing pivotal for Lady Rebels

Adam Candee

Thursday, Feb. 3, 2005 | 9:27 a.m.

She sees progress, for certain, but Lady Rebels coach Regina Miller is never too effusive with praise for her team.A week ago today, UNLV upset New Mexico at the Thomas & Mack Center, then came back Saturday and easily swept away Air Force to climb back into the Mountain West Conference race after opening with three losses in a row.

While Miller is happy to see her team back in contention as it takes on conference leader Utah tonight in Salt Lake City, she is focused on smaller battles like UNLV cutting down on mistakes. The biggest improvement Miller saw on the short homestand was that her team didn't make as many consecutive mistakes as it had recently made.

"We're trying to eliminate some of those self-destructive mistakes," Miller said.

Miller feels that it's a matter of not triggering opponents' runs, that if the Lady Rebels can limit their turnovers, they are talented enough to compete with any team in the conference.Both the improvements and the theory will be put to a stiff test tonight against the Utes (15-5, 4-1), who knocked the Lady Rebels (11-8, 2-3) out of the Mountain West tournament semifinals a year ago. UNLV continues on to face BYU (11-7, 2-3) on Saturday afternoon in Provo.

Not only are the Utes consistently tough at home, but the Lady Rebels are struggling on the road this season with just a 1-4 mark. UNLV is just 3-8 all-time against Utah in Salt Lake City, but did sweep the trip against Utah and BYU last season.

Miller feels that the New Mexico game, in which UNLV fell behind by six points in the second half before storming back to win late, taught her team a valuable lesson about how to play with a lead and finish an opponent. It's something Miller felt was missing in the Lady Rebels' tight road losses to Wyoming and Colorado State, when UNLV blew late leads in both games.

The win against the Lobos also showed that UNLV can compete with a strong opponent, and that's what it will find in Utah. Led by two-time Mountain West player of the year Kim Smith and slick guard Shona Thorburn, Utah is again leading the pack.

Smith paces the Utes at 16.7 points per game and leads the conference at 9.5 rebounds per game. UNLV, at least with Sherry McCracklin in the post, defended Smith well in last year's tournament game, holding her to 10 points and six boards.

Where UNLV struggled was against Thorburn, who is putting up excellent numbers this year at 14.6 ppg, 7.2 rpg and a conference-best 6.5 assists per game. Thorburn hit up the Lady Rebels for 23 points in a full 40 minutes as Utah eliminated UNLV, 59-55, last season.

The Lady Rebels counter with guard Sheena Moore and forward RanDee Henry.

After pressing a bit early in the year, Moore is settling into her point guard role. She appeared much more comfortable in the offense against New Mexico and Air Force, creating opportunities for teammates but also taking the open shot when allowed.

Henry earned Mountain West player of the week honors for the past two games, averaging 18 points and 6.5 rebounds against the Lobos and Falcons. She feels confident that, after watching a number of players log quality minutes against Air Force, her teammates can help shoulder the load on the road this weekend.

"That showed that people have that scoring ability if they have to pick up the slack later in the season," Henry said.