Feb. 3, 2005
Box Score
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Down five points with under seven to play, Utah's Shona Thorburn sparked a 16-3 game-ending run to gave the host Utes a 63-55 win over UNLV in Mountain West Conference women's basketball action on Thursday night from the Huntsman Center. The Lady Rebels still had a chance to tie in the final minute down by two, but a turnover and a layup on the other end from Kim Smith sealed the game as Utah avenged its 68-60 home overtime loss to UNLV to end the 2003-04 season. UNLV fell to 11-9,2-4 in league action with the loss, while the Utes moved to 16-5, and remain tied for first in the MWC at 5-1.
UNLV trailed by one at half, 31-30, and were down by six, 39-33 with 14:35 to play in the game. The Lady Rebels remained close and slowly cut down the lead. With Utah up 45-42, Nikki Hitchens scored four straight points for a 46-45 UNLV edge. After a Thorburn layup, the Lady Rebels scored six unanswered to take their largest lead of the game, 52-47, on a Sheena Moore jumper with 6:41 to play.
That was the last UNLV point for the next 2:40, as a Thorburn trey ignited an 8-0 Utah run, and her free throw with 3:25 to play gave the Utes a 55-52 lead. Moore finally broke the drought for UNLV with a trey to tie the game again at 52-52, but Thorburn again scored on the other end for a two-point lead with 1:21 to play. Down two, UNLV turned the ball over and Smith scored on the other end for a four-point edge, and the Utes were four-of-four at the line in the final 30 seconds to take the eight-point win.
The first half was just as back and forth as the second, with seven ties and 10 lead changes. After both teams began cold from the floor, Utah began to heat up from three-point range, and took a 31-25 lead on Smith's layup with 2:53 to play in the opening stanza. Moore kept UNLV in the game however, scoring five straight over the final 50 seconds to bring the Lady Rebels within one, 31-30, going into halftime.
Moore led UNLV with 11 points, and with her three-pointer at the end she became the 14th Lady Rebel in school history to score 1,000 career points at the school. Hitchens was the only other Lady Rebel in double figures with 10. Brittney Thomas and RanDee Henry both added nine points, while Sequoia Holmes finished with eight. UNLV was held to just 37 percent (17-of-46) from the floor, including 6-of-19 from behind the arc. The Lady Rebels were also dominated on the boards 38-24, but did force Utah in 19 turnovers, four more then the Utes' season average.
Thorburn, who scored all 18 of her points in the second half, led all scorers and also added seven assists and three steals. Smith joined her in double figures with 16 points and seven rebounds. Utah shot 44.6% for the game, including 50% in the second half, and were five-of-12 from downtown.
UNLV closes out the first half of the MWC schedule with a Saturday afternoon game at BYU in Provo, Utah. The game will be televised live by BYU-TV with a 2 pm (PST) start.
