LAS VEGAS – Jayla Constant texted Lindy La Rocque on Monday morning to tell her she had not slept the night before her first college game.
By that afternoon, the freshman was trying to bring the ball up against JuJu Watkins and a USC defense that crowded UNLV’s guards, deflected passes and repeatedly turned mistakes into layups. Constant scored nine points without missing a shot before halftime. She also finished her debut with eight turnovers.
“Sometimes you just got to kind of get game one over with,” La Rocque said afterward.
UNLV’s 100-68 loss to No. 3 USC at T-Mobile Arena gave La Rocque an immediate look at what her new backcourt can do and how much it still has to learn. The Lady Rebels made four 3-pointers in the second quarter to stay within 13 at halftime. Then USC held them scoreless for nearly four minutes, forced eight third-quarter turnovers and took a 34-point lead into the fourth.
Norah Moo and Maia Rosarion each finished with seven rebounds, and UNLV collected 21 on the offensive end. But the Lady Rebels committed 24 turnovers and allowed USC to score 32 points off them. Their work to recover missed shots could not overcome how often they lost the ball before attempting one.
Moo pulled down six offensive rebounds against a taller frontcourt. La Rocque praised her for battling the “giants down there” and reminded the room that the sophomore was also playing in the biggest game of her young career.
Moo saw promise in the guards playing alongside her, particularly Keonni “Bubbles” Lewis, who made two second-quarter 3-pointers in her return from injury. Constant’s speed also gave UNLV a way to attack the basket despite USC’s size.
UNLV scored 22 second-chance points, but its offense frequently left the frontcourt chasing a miss or running back after a turnover. The Lady Rebels finished with 11 assists and shot 34.9%.
Asked afterward about Gottlieb’s plan to exploit UNLV’s young backcourt, La Rocque acknowledged the mistakes while defending her guards’ potential. Jayla Constant, a freshman playing her first regular-season college game, finished with eight turnovers and three assists. Jasmyn Lott had four turnovers. Meadow Roland, Bergan Kinnebrew and Trystan James committed three apiece.
La Rocque spread responsibility across the team afterward. Constant had the most difficult individual afternoon, but the turnovers continued through substitutions and involved players at different positions. USC could disrupt UNLV without waiting for one particular ball-handler to make a mistake. The problems had appeared early: a pass toward Moo went astray, Lott lost the ball while trying to use a screen, and James and Washenitz misread each other on a cut.
Constant also scored 10 points and showed enough for La Rocque to remain encouraged about the player she expects to lead the offense.
“She made some mistakes out there, but then you saw some flashes of like, wow, she can be a really special player,” La Rocque said.
Constant’s first basket came on a shot fake and jumper that put UNLV ahead 5-3. In the second quarter, she took a handoff on the right wing and beat the defense to the basket. She had nine points on 3-for-3 shooting at halftime, showing why La Rocque was willing to start her against one of the country’s best teams.
Lewis made two 3-pointers. Marley Washenitz and Lott added one each. On Lewis’ second, Washenitz drove the baseline and moved the ball to Kinnebrew in the corner. Kinnebrew passed it to Lewis on the wing for the shot. USC’s defenders had to follow the ball across the floor, and UNLV found a shooter ready to release it.
USC still scored 23 points in the quarter. UNLV’s best stretch of offense trimmed its deficit by only one, leaving the Lady Rebels down 52-39 at halftime. They had found ways to score without finding a way to slow the Trojans.
That left little room for the mistakes that followed. Saniyah Hall stole the ball from Roland with 9:18 left in the third quarter and scored five seconds later. USC had opened the half with consecutive baskets before UNLV attempted a shot.
The Lady Rebels did not make their first field goal of the half until James scored on a putback with 6:05 remaining. USC had scored nine unanswered points. James later finished a pass from Constant, but UNLV could not string those baskets together with stops.
Another Constant turnover became a Jazzy Davidson assist and a JuJu Watkins layup, pushing the lead to 69-43. Later in the quarter, Ryann Bennett stole the ball from James and scored. On UNLV’s next possession, Bennett took it from Lewis and found Watkins for a layup. Watkins drew a foul and made the free throw.
Those last two possessions cost UNLV five points without producing a shot. USC’s pressure had become a scoring source of its own, and changing the Lady Rebels’ lineup had not interrupted it.
La Rocque had identified the danger before tipoff. In her pregame radio interview, she emphasized sprinting back, staying connected and making USC play against a set defense.
“It’s going to start in transition defense,” she said.
UNLV’s turnovers made that difficult, but they did not account for every defensive problem. USC also scored against the Lady Rebels in the half court and finished with 52 points in the paint. The Trojans had too many players getting comfortable shots for UNLV to recover simply by taking better care of the ball.
Davidson made 10 of 11 field-goal attempts. Hall went 7 of 8, including three 3-pointers. Watkins missed all five of her attempts from beyond the arc, yet USC still shot 58.8% overall. Kennedy Smith scored 12 points, and Sitaya Fagan added 11 off the bench.
UNLV could not afford to devote its defense to Watkins and hope her teammates missed. Hall and Davidson combined to miss only twice in 19 attempts. USC’s passing and finishing punished the Lady Rebels even when its most recognizable player was not the one taking the shot.
Roland’s foul trouble made UNLV’s response harder. She picked up her second personal with 4:55 remaining in the first quarter and her third on an offensive foul late in the second. At halftime, she had seven points and six rebounds.
She finished with those same totals, fouling out with 4:56 left in the fourth. UNLV lost both her production around the basket and the passing she had supplied during its best offensive quarter. Her first-half assists to perimeter shooters had helped the Lady Rebels make USC defend more than the initial action.
Moo continued pursuing misses, finishing with seven rebounds despite collecting only one on the defensive end. All six of her points came in the fourth quarter. UNLV needed that activity earlier, when its guards were struggling and Roland was managing fouls, but getting offensive rebounds did not guarantee a finish against USC’s size.
La Rocque also cautioned against reading too much into the rebounding margin. UNLV missed 41 field-goal attempts, while USC missed 28. The Lady Rebels had more chances to collect their own misses because so many of their first shots did not fall.
That context does not diminish Moo’s work. Six offensive rebounds against that frontcourt gave UNLV opportunities it otherwise would have lost. It does explain why a 40-35 rebounding advantage could coexist with a 32-point defeat. USC was making shots while UNLV was working for another attempt.
Rosarion gave the Lady Rebels their most productive scoring line. She finished with a team-high 12 points, made three of seven shots and went 5 of 6 from the foul line. Four of her seven rebounds came on offense, and she did not commit a turnover.
Much of that production came after USC had taken control, so it cannot answer how UNLV would have fared with a different rotation earlier. It does give La Rocque a reason to look more closely at Rosarion’s minutes. On an afternoon when possessions repeatedly broke down, she supplied points and rebounds without giving the ball away.
James contributed six points, five rebounds and two assists. Her third-quarter baskets came in different ways, one from her own offensive rebound and another from Constant’s pass. On the latter, Constant drove from the left and found James on the opposite block. When she attempted another pass around the defense later in the quarter, USC intercepted it and sent Watkins the other way for a layup.
The Lady Rebels outscored USC 19-17 in the fourth quarter. La Rocque cited winning two periods as something her team could carry forward, while acknowledging how badly the other two had gone. USC outscored UNLV by a combined 35 points in the first and third quarters.
“The two that we lost really got away from us,” La Rocque said.
La Rocque has deliberately put this roster against opponents capable of exposing its weaknesses early. UNLV also travels to UConn during nonconference play. She said the purpose is to prepare the Lady Rebels to win the Mountain West regular-season and tournament titles, giving them experience against players better than anyone they will have to guard in the league.
“We’re gonna take our bumps and bruises, but we have to keep getting better,” La Rocque said.
UNLV hosts UTSA at 6:30 p.m. Pacific on Friday, when the program will retire Desi-Rae Young’s No. 23 jersey. La Rocque planned to give the players Tuesday off before preparing for the game. She wants the loss to matter to her young players, but she also needs them ready to play again.
“If this hurts, great, but we got a big game on Friday,” La Rocque said. “So we gotta kinda turn the page quickly.”
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