Dec. 14, 2002

Box Score

HONOLULU - The UNLV women's basketball team escaped with a 60-56 victory over Long Island University to move on to the championship title game of the University of Hawai'i Invitational Saturday night at the Stan Sherriff Center.

Freshman Sheena Moore (Lansing, Mich.) led the Lady Rebels with a career-high 15 points off the bench. Also scoring in double-digits were senior All-America candidate Constance Jinks (Chicago, Ill.) with 14 points and senior Talisha Mitchell (Stockton, Calif.) with a season-high 12 points and seven rebounds.

Sophomore Sherry McCracklin (Hazel Crest, Ill.) added nine points, before fouling out of the game with two-tenths of a second left to play.

UNLV shot a dismal 34 percent from the field, but made up for its shooting woes in free throws, going 17-of-19 (90 percent). The Blackbirds and Lady Rebels exchanged seven lead changes throughout the ballgame with UNLV taking its largest lead of nine points with 5:04 left in regulation on a free throw made by Mitchell.

Long Island's Tamika Dudley led all scorers with her game-high 24 points. LIU (0-6), in its first meeting ever against UNLV, led at halftime 31-30, only the second time this season the Lady Rebels have not led at the break.

UNLV (5-1) will next play host Hawai'i (4-2) in the championship game tomorrow at 7 p.m. (PST) in Honolulu.