LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) -  UNLV held South Florida without a point for the first six minutes of the fourth quarter, while senior guard LaTecia Smith scored a career-high 22 points in Saturday's 61-51 victory in the third place game of the Duel In The Desert women's basketball tournament, held at the Cox Pavilion. Smith ended the third quarter with a jumper that started an 11-0 run, giving UNLV a 55-44 advantage. The Lady Rebels improved to 4-8 with the win, while the Bulls dropped to 7-6 overall.

THE TURNING POINT: USF hit six of its first nine shots to open a 16-5 advantage over the host Lady Rebels just five minutes into the game. It was still an 11-point lead, 20-9 for the Bulls with three minutes left before UNLV went on a 7-0 run to end the quarter, capped by a trey from Bailey Thomas to close within 20-16. UNLV then scored the first seven points of the second quarter, for a combined 14-0 run that put the Lady Rebels ahead 23-20 at the 5:54 mark. USF would only lead twice more in the game, for a total of 51 seconds, and UNLV ended the first half with a 31-29 advantage.

LADY REBEL OF THE GAME: Smith finished 6-of-13 from the floor and was near perfect at the free throw line, hitting 9-of-10 on the way to her new career mark. She also set a new career-high with six steals, while adding five rebounds and two assists, and was named to the all-tournament team for her performance.

STAT OF THE GAME: UNLV finished with a 21-8 edge on points off turnovers.

LADY REBEL NOTES

* - Also scoring a new career-high was freshman Melanie Isbell, a Las Vegas native, with 10 points in her second career start. She also set a new career-high with six rebounds.

* - UNLV shot a season-high 50% from three-point range (7-of-14). The Lady Rebels came into the tournament last in the MW in three-pointers per game, but made a total of 15 over the two games.

* - The Lady Rebels allowed 20 points in the first seven minutes of the game, and only 31 over the final 33 minutes.

* - This was the first win over the Bulls since the 2003-04 season. UNLV lost the past two meetings, both of which came in Las Vegas in pre-Christmas tournaments (2010 BTI Classic, 2016 Play4Kay Classic).

NEXT TIME OUT: UNLV will break for the Christmas holidays before returning to Mountain West conference action with a road contest on New Year's Day against Utah State in Logan, Utah. The game will tip at 6 pm (PT).