Jan. 27, 2001
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State and UNLV both entered Saturday night's game at Cox Arena looking to prove it belonged in the upper half of the Mountain West Conference. For one night, at least, it was the Lady Rebels that looked the part as UNLV defeated SDSU, 82-41, in front of 1,173.
Senior Shannon Lee was the only Aztec to finish in double figures with 10 points as San Diego State (10-8, 2-3 MWC) was held to its lowest scoring total of the season.
"These kind of losses are always tough," said SDSU head coach Barb Smith. "But I'd rather have it happen now and learn from it than at the end of the season when we need a win or in the (Mountain West Conference) tournament. Hopefully this will be our wake-up call because we certainly didn't come ready to play tonight."
For the first time this season, the Aztecs were truly off their game in every facet, finishing with a season-high 34 turnovers, shooting a season-low 29 percent and once again losing the battle of the boards, 39-35.
As bad as things were for the Aztecs, the game couldn't have gone better for UNLV (13-4, 3-2 MWC), which had four players finish in double figures, including the league's leading scorer and rebounder, Linda Frohlich, who finished with a game-high 21 points.
The Lady Rebels also became the first SDSU opponent this season to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor, canning a blistering 56 percent of their shots.
UNLV opened the game red hot and never cooled off, using a 16-2 run to take a 22-7 lead at the 10:57 mark of the first half. The Lady Rebels' advantage grew to as many as 20 just before the break, but SDSU scored the final three points of the period to slice the deficit to 39-22 at intermission.
Things only got worse after the half for the Aztecs as the Lady Rebels scored 29 of the first 30 points of the session to take a 68-23 lead with nine minutes to play. That lead grew to as many as 46 twice in the final seven minutes. The Aztecs never drew closer than 39.
San Diego State will try to get things back on track Thursday night, Feb. 1, when the Aztecs host Wyoming at 7 p.m.