Feb. 11, 2017
San Jose, Calif. - With two starters on the bench for the UNLV Rebels, Saturday's game looked like a good opportunity for the San José State women's basketball team to pick up a win and get to the .500 mark in Mountain West Conference play, but the Rebels dominated on the boards and forced the Spartans to play at a slow pace en route to an SJSU loss 63-55.
The Rebels (17-8, 8-5 MW) were without the services of Katie Powell (7.8 points, 6.7 rebounds & 1.0 blocks) and Brooke Johnson (11.6 points, 4.7 rebounds & 3.3 assists), but Dakota Gonzalez picke dup the slack scoring a career-high 31 points on 12-of-23 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead UNLV to the win.
In addition to Gonzalez, UNLV had two other players with double-digit rebounds, Alyssa Anderson (10 rebounds & 13 points) and Jordyn Bell (10 rebounds & 8 points) and for the game UNLV held a 47-to-23 advantage on the boards including 20-to-9 on the offensive glass. They used the offensive rebounds to score 17 second-chance points.
SJSU (8-16, 5-7 MW) was out of sorts from the opening tip. They trailed 8-6 after a pair of Dezz Ramos free throw with 5:32 to go in the first quarter, but then saw UNLV score nine-straight to take a 17-6 lead. Myzhanique Ladd's layup with a minute and a half to go ended the streak and SJSU was down 19-10 after one period.
UNLV built its biggest lead of the game, 30-15, with 3:50 to go before the half, but Ramos ripped off eight of her team-high 22 points in just over two minutes and after Ladd made one of two free throws with 14 seconds to go the teams went to intermission with SJSU trailing by just six, 30-24.
In the third quarter the Spartans continued to cut into the Rebels lead and after a Ramos three-pointer with 5:11 to go in the period, San José State had its first lead of the game 36-34. A pair of Taylor Turney free throws with eight seconds left in the third made it 42-40 Spartans and that was the score going to the fourth period.
UNLV's Anderson, who had two points at the half and four after three periods, hit three shots from beyond the arc which were critical to UNLV's win. With 6:01 she hit one to tie the game at 47-47. Forty five second later she hit another to give the Rebels the lead 50-49 and with 2:56 to play she hit a third which pushed UNLV's lead to five, 55-50.
Ramos got the Spartans within three with 1:31 to go on a pair of free throws and then tied the game 55-55 with a trey with 50 seconds to play. But down the stretch the Spartans suffered five empty possessions while UNLV was fouled and knocked down 8-of-10 free throws for the eight-point win.
The Spartans equaled their season low with 24 rebounds and the bench which accounted for 22 points in the team's win at SDSU three days ago chipped in just four against UNLV.
Jasmine Smith the team's leading rebounder (8.7 per game) had just one on Saturday and scored 11 points. Ladd led the game with 12 rebounds and scored eight points.
The Spartans return to action on Wednesday when they host Fresno State in The Event Center. Tip off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
UNLV vs San Jose State
02/11/17 2:00 p.m. at San Jose, Calif. (The Event Center)
At San Jose, Calif. (The Event Center)
UNLV 63, SAN JOSE STATE 55
UNLV (17-8, 8-5 MW)
GONZALEZ, Dakota 12-23 5-6 31; ANDERSON, Alyssa 5-8 0-0 13; BELL, Jordyn 2-8
4-6 8; STRAWTHER, Paris 2-3 2-4 6; GONZALEZ, Dylan 1-16 0-0 3; LEE, Destiney
1-1 0-0 2; WADE, Rodjanae 0-0 0-0 0; SHEPPARD, Simone 0-1 0-0 0; WHARTON,
Kennedy 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 23-61 11-16 63.
SAN JOSE STATE (8-16, 5-7 MW)
Ramos, Dezz 6-22 8-8 22; Smith, Jasmine 5-8 1-2 11; Ladd, Myzhanique 3-8 1-2
8; West, Rachol 2-5 0-0 6; Turney, Taylor 1-2 2-2 4; Baird, Paris 1-5 2-2 4;
Harris, Alexis 0-0 0-0 0; Gennett, Hallie 0-2 0-0 0; HAFOKA, Fieme'a 0-0 0-0
0; Kohlhaas, Andrea 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 18-54 14-16 55.
UNLV.......................... 19 11 10 23 - 63
San Jose State................ 10 14 18 13 - 55
3-point goals--UNLV 6-18 (ANDERSON, Alyssa 3-5; GONZALEZ, Dakota 2-4;
GONZALEZ, Dylan 1-9), San Jose State 5-17 (West, Rachol 2-4; Ramos, Dezz
2-6; Ladd, Myzhanique 1-1; Baird, Paris 0-3; Gennett, Hallie 0-2; KOHLHAAS,
Andrea 0-1). Fouled out--UNLV-None, San Jose State-SMITH, Jasmine; BAIRD,
Paris. Rebounds--UNLV 47 (ANDERSON, Alyssa 10; BELL, Jordyn 10; GONZALEZ,
Dakota 10), San Jose State 24 (Ladd, Myzhanique 12). Assists--UNLV 10
(GONZALEZ, Dylan 4), San Jose State 9 (Ladd, Myzhanique 4). Total
fouls--UNLV 19, San Jose State 17. Technical fouls--UNLV-None, San Jose
State-None. A-761