SAN ANTONIO — By the time UTSA finally made a basket Wednesday night, UNLV was already up 13-0. Ten minutes later, the Lady Rebels had allowed one field goal, built an 18-point lead and put themselves in position to spend the rest of the night making sure the Roadrunners never found a way back.
UNLV did exactly that in a 66-39 win at the Convocation Center, earning its first true road victory of the season and ending UTSA’s 17-game home winning streak. The Lady Rebels improved to 5-3 with their best defensive performance away from Las Vegas this season, holding the Roadrunners to 27.9% shooting and 2-for-17 from 3-point range.
The first quarter was brutal for UTSA. UNLV scored on its first three possessions, forced two turnovers before two minutes had passed and did not allow a basket until the Roadrunners were already down 13. UTSA made that one shot and nothing else, finishing the quarter 1-for-15 from the field while missing all five attempts from deep and never getting to the free-throw line.
UTSA committed four turnovers during the quarter, but even the possessions that ended with a shot rarely produced a clean look. UNLV made the Roadrunners work deep into possessions and controlled the glass well enough to prevent most misses from becoming another opportunity.
“We talked all week about our team being road tough,” UNLV coach Lindy La Rocque said. “I thought we did a great job coming out from the jump.”
UNLV did not exactly light up the scoreboard on the other end, but it did not need to. Jasmyn Lott scored six points in the opening quarter, Aaliyah Alexander made the first basket of the game and the Lady Rebels closed the period with seven unanswered points to take a 20-2 lead.
That gave UNLV a cushion it had not always created for itself on the road. The Lady Rebels had already lost at Montana State and Arizona State, and there were stretches in both games when one bad offensive sequence turned into another before the game started moving away from them. Wednesday never had that feel because UTSA spent the entire night trying to make up for the first 10 minutes.
The Roadrunners settled down in the second quarter. They made six of 16 shots and outscored UNLV 15-14, but even their best stretch of the first half only cut the deficit to 13. UNLV answered with the final four points and went into halftime ahead 34-17.
By then, UTSA’s shooting was only part of the problem. UNLV held a 28-18 rebounding advantage at halftime and finished the game ahead 50-33, including 20 offensive rebounds. That mattered on a night when the Lady Rebels shot 40.3% because their misses did not always end possessions.
Meadow Roland finished with 14 rebounds, four assists and three blocks. Shelbee Brown added 10 rebounds, including five on the offensive end, and three steals. UNLV recorded 10 steals and eight blocks as a team, so UTSA rarely found anything easy and often had to defend another possession after forcing a miss.
That was where the game really got away from the Roadrunners. UTSA was shooting below 28%, and UNLV kept giving itself extra chances. Even after the first-quarter shooting numbers stopped looking ridiculous, the Lady Rebels controlled enough possessions to prevent the margin from moving very far.
Lott took care of the scoring, finishing with a career-high 21 points on 9-for-15 shooting and making three of her six attempts from 3-point range. Alexander added 10 points, and they were the only Lady Rebels to reach double figures.
UNLV did not need Lott to carry the entire offense. The Lady Rebels assisted on 18 of their 27 made field goals and continued moving the ball well enough to find shots without asking her to create something every time a possession reached the final seconds.
The Roadrunners needed a response coming out of halftime if the game was going to become interesting. Instead, Lott hit a pull-up jumper, Alexander followed with a 3-pointer and the lead moved beyond 20 almost immediately.
UTSA went 4-for-14 in the third quarter and scored eight points. UNLV took a 48-25 lead into the fourth, and whatever chance the Roadrunners had of making a run disappeared when Lott opened the final period with back-to-back 3-pointers.
A 23-point lead became 29, allowing La Rocque to work through the rest of her roster instead of trying to protect a road win with the same group. All 12 Lady Rebels appeared, eight played at least 12 minutes and the bench finished with a 20-13 scoring advantage.
The score did not change much when the lineups changed. UTSA never found a group it could consistently attack, and UNLV received enough defensively from its reserves to keep the Roadrunners from stringing together the possessions they needed to make the game uncomfortable.
The 20-2 first quarter will stand out because it should. Holding a Division I team to one basket in 10 minutes is absurd, and UNLV probably will not see another opponent miss 14 of its first 15 shots anytime soon.
The rest of the box score is more useful. UNLV finished with 50 rebounds, 20 offensive boards, 18 assists, 10 steals and eight blocks while holding UTSA below 28% shooting. Those are numbers the Lady Rebels can take into another gym.
UNLV did not win because everything went right offensively. It won because the defense gave UTSA nothing early, the rebounding created additional chances and Lott finished when the offense needed her.
For a team that had not won a true road game, that is a better place to start than waiting for another opponent to miss 14 of its first 15 shots.
