Las Vegas, Nev. – Trailing by 12 points late in the fourth quarter, the San José State women's basketball team went on an 11-0 run over two minutes and 30 seconds to close to within one point, but could get no closer and fell to the UNLV Rebels 74-70 on Saturday afternoon.
"I was really happy with our effort tonight," head coach Jamie Craighead said. "We got it down to a one-possession game and gave ourselves a chance to win, but we didn't get a few calls which could have made it a different outcome."
The Spartans (2-21, 1-11 MW) were down by as many as 13 points in the second half and trailed 71-59 with 2:48 to play. Fieme'a Hafoka hit a three and 20 seconds later Megan Anderson hit another to make it a six-point game with 2:09 on the clock. Three straight free throws, two by Anderson with 1:36 left and another from Raziya Potter at the 1:27 mark made it 71-68.
Mikaylah Wilson hit a jumper with 18 seconds to go to bring San José State to within a point, 71-70. With no timeouts left, the Spartans were forced to foul. UNLV hit three of their last four to secure the 74-70 victory.
The Spartans were led by a season-high 16 points from Anderson, who also equaled her career-high with nine rebounds. Danae Marquez had 12 points, including a pair of threes, five rebounds and four assists. She moved into a tie with Natalie St. Mary for 17th place on the program's career-assists list with 188 and moved into a 22nd-place tie on the career three-point list with Andrea Kohlhaas with 53 threes.
The other Spartan in double figure scoring was Cydni Lewis. She had 11 points, four rebounds, one assist, two steals and a block.
Alexis Harris added six points and blocked a pair of Rebels shots. She has 44 blocks in her career and ranks 24th on the career-blocks list. Wilson scored four points, grabbed four boards and with her one block, the 45th of her career, is 23rd on the SJSU blocks list.
The Spartans struggled out of the gate. They were getting the shots they wanted but couldn't knock them down. Twice they found themselves down by 10 points; 12-2 with 4:11 into the game and 18-8 with 4:07 left in the period. But then they caught fire from long distance.
Fieme'a Hafoka started the rally with a three. Marquez then hit one on the next possession and Hafoka made her second right after Marquez. With 1:13 to go in the quarter Lewis hit the team's fourth trey of the period, which pulled SJSU to within four at 24-20.
Lewis made the teams next two buckets to tie the game at 24-24 inside 10 seconds to play. UNLV hit a bucket with a second to go and the score was 26-24 after one.
Five straight points from Megan Anderson to open the second gave SJSU its first lead of the game, 29-26. A Potter layup with 7:18 to go before half put the Spartans up 31-29, but in the last 5:21, UNLV (9-15, 7-6) outscored San Jose State 11-4 and took a seven-point lead into the locker room, 44-37.
Coming out of halftime, the Rebels extended its lead to as many as 12 points in the third before SJSU got it down to eight, 59-51, heading into the final 10 minutes.
UNLV pressed its advantage bock to double digits early in the fourth and had its largest lead 69-56 with 4:46. The Spartans comeback commenced a few minutes later, but UNLV held on for the four-point victory.
For the game the Spartans outshot UNLV from the floor and beyond the three-point line. SJSU hit 42.9 percent (24-of-56) including 36 percent (9-of-25) from long range, compared to the Rebels 38 percent (25-of-66) and 25 percent (5-of-20) from beyond the arc.
The major difference was the attempts and conversions from the free throw line. UNLV went the the line 27 times and made 19, while San José State was 13-of-20.
San José State wraps up its two-game road trip on Wednesday, February 20 at Colorado State. The Spartans and Rams tip off in Moby Arena at 7:00 p.m.