Lady Rebels can’t connect late, lose to Boise State 75-72

The UNLV women’s basketball team fell to Boise State 75-72 on Saturday in a Mountain West game at Cox Pavilion.

Three players combined for 51 of the Lady Rebels’ points. Danielle Miller scored 18, Alana Cesarz 17 and Mia Bell 16. Reserve Briana Charles added 10 points for UNLV (10-16, 7-7 MW).

The Lady Rebels had a chance to tie the score at the end, but Cesarz missed a 3-point shot with 11 seconds left. UNLV forced a jump ball and retained possession with 4.7 seconds left, but Bell couldn’t get off a shot before time ran out.

Sophomore center Aley Rohde, the Lady Rebels’ leading rebounder at 7.2 per game, didn’t play because of a shoulder injury.

After shooting 48 percent (12 of 25) from the field in the first half, UNLV hit only 28 percent (7 of 25) in the second.

“We battled today, we had good focus, energy, and we did a good job of attacking the basket,” UNLV coach Kathy Olivier. “I felt we did a good job taking care of the ball and going inside-out. We had three or four people have a really good game, and that’s without our starting post player (Rohde).”

Boise State (15-10) remained second in the conference at 10-4. Colorado State leads at 13-1.