March 1, 2008
Box Score
FORT WORTH, Texas - TCU jumped out to a 30-11 first half lead, and made 32 free throws in the game to claim an 87-57 victory over UNLV in Mountain West Conference women's basketball action from the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum on Saturday afternoon. The loss, the Lady Rebels' third-straight, sent them to 8-19 on the season, 4-10 in league play, while the Lady Frogs held onto second place in the MWC at 11-3, 18-10 overall.
UNLV made just three of its first 13 shots from the floor, while TCU started the afternoon hitting 4-of-9 from the floor, but more importantly its first eight at the line for a 16-6 lead nine minutes into the contest. The Lady Rebels closed to within seven, 18-11, but then TCU ran off 12 unanswered points, nine of them from Emily Carter, and her layup at 5:43 made the score 30-11.
The Lady Rebels responded with a 7-0 run of their own to cut the lead to 30-18 with 2:51 left in the half. A Sequoia Holmes trey further cut the TCU advantage into single digits, 32-23, but another two free throws gave TCU a 34-23 lead going into halftime.
Down 14 in the beginning of the second half, five straight UNLV points brought the team within single digits once more, 39-30 on a three-pointer from Brittany Halberg. TCU then put the game away with a 15-1 spurt over the next five minutes, and Moneka Knight capped the run with a layup at 12:53 to make the score 54-31. The Lady Rebels closed with 15 points twice, but could get no closer.
UNLV was led by Shamela Hampton with 13 points. Sequoia Holmes, the team's leading scorer, was held to just nine points and played a season-low 28 minutes due to foul trouble. Erica Helms set a new career-high with nine points, while Dominique Harris added eight and Shannon Oberg seven. As a team, UNLV was held to 36.2% shooting (21-of-58), but did make 6-of-17 from three-point range for 35.3%. The Lady Rebels made just 14 trips to the free-throw line, making nine for 64.3%. UNLV was outrebounded by a 38-28 margin, and turned the ball over 25 times.
Helena Sverrisdottir paced TCU with 15 points, while Carter nailed three treys to score 12 points, and Danielle Nunn posted 11 points, all at the free throw line (11-of-12). TCU shot 53.3% (24-of-45) for the afternoon, was 7-of-14 from three-point range for 50%, and made 32-of-38 at the line for 84.2%. The 32 made free throws was the fifth-best total in TCU school history.
UNLV returns home to Las Vegas now for its final home game of the regular season, as it hosts New Mexico on Senior Night on Tuesday, March 4 at 8 pm in the Cox Pavilion, in a game nationally televised by CSTV.
