UNLV Lady Rebels guard Amarachi Kimpson (33) drives to the basket between Colorado State Rams guards Marta Leimane (14) and Hannah Ronsiek (30) in the second half of an NCAA women’s semifinal game during the Mountain West Championships at the Thomas & Mack Center Tuesday, March 12, 2024.
Thursday, March 21, 2024 | 2 a.m.
The UNLV women’s basketball program has never advanced past the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but the team has one player with Final Four experience—freshman guard Amarachi Kimpson.
Kimpson, a Texas native, attended last year’s semifinal matchup between Iowa and South Carolina in Dallas as part of a high school all-star outing. And she got to witness an all-time classic, as Caitlyn Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes knocked off the previously undefeated top seed.
“We got tickets to the game and had pretty decent seats,” Kimpson says with a wide smile. “Very crazy. To see sold-out crowds, everybody supporting each other, it was really good.”
OK, so it’s not playing experience, but that hasn’t slowed Kimpson so far. The first-year spark plug has ingrained herself as a key contributor to this year’s UNLV team as it once again eyes the first NCAA Tournament victory in school history.
No. 10 seed UNLV will look to solidify this season as the best in program history when it takes on No. 7 seed Creighton in the first round of the Big Dance at 4 p.m. March 23 in Los Angeles. The game will be broadcast on ESPN News, with the victor meeting the winner of a game between No. 2 seed UCLA and No. 15 seed California Baptist on March 25.
The Scarlet and Gray are a veteran-led group, starting with senior center Desi-Rae Young, who just earned her second Mountain West Player of the Year award after averaging 17.1 points and 9.1 rebounds a game. Junior point guard Kiara Jackson, junior shooting guard Alyssa Durazo-Frescas and junior forward Alyssa Brown are starters who have also been part of tournament runs the past two years.
But when UNLV needed a bucket late in the Mountain West tournament semifinal against Colorado State, it was Kimpson whose number was called.
Head coach Lindy La Rocque designed a series of isolation plays for Kimpson, and the youngster delivered each time, scoring at will to push UNLV across the finish line of a 62-52 win—its toughest test of the conference tournament.
Kimpson finished with a team-high 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting that night. Now the Scarlet and Gray are counting on the Mountain West Freshman of the Year to provide that kind of impact on the biggest stage.
Kimpson came off the bench for all 32 games this season (she was also named Mountain West Sixth Player of the Year) and posted averages of nine points and two assists per game while nailing 40.3% of her 3-pointers.
She got more aggressive—and more effective—as the season went on, culminating in her sensational MWC tournament showing.
Creighton will surely come into the first-round contest with a plan to defend Young, but Kimpson could be the X-factor. La Rocque is more than fine with that.
“She continues to get better and grow into her own as a player,” La Rocque says. “The confidence that our team has in her is through the roof.”
Kimpson’s speed and relentless style have added another gear to UNLV’s high-powered offense. The Scarlet and Gray rank 17th in the nation in scoring at 79.2 points per game, and they topped the 100-point mark in each of their final two regular-season contests.
Though she’s surrounded by accomplished veterans, Kimpson has the green light to attack whenever she sees an opening.
“I just try to bring the most energy I can every game,” Kimpson says. “That’s kind of what’s brought me here.”
Her athleticism consistently wows her teammates, both in practice and on game day. After she contorted in the air to finish a 3-point play late against Colorado State, Young rushed over to chest-bump Kimpson, who was immediately surrounded and congratulated by her squad.
Brown, the Mountain West tournament MVP, praised Kimpson for bringing another dimension on both ends of the court.
“She’s a great point guard,” Brown says. “She’s definitely very explosive. Her hang time is crazy. She’s given us a lot of points. Defensively she’s a bigger, physical guard, so she helps a lot on defense and offense.”
La Rocque especially enjoys pairing Kimpson with Jackson, an All-Mountain West point guard who also possesses top-end speed. Most teams can barely keep up with one of them, so teaming them together can break an opposing defense.
“For our style of play, I love playing two point guards at a time,” La Rocque says. “It’s like having two or three brains out there. And both her and Kiara have the ability to play not just on the ball, but off the ball. I think it really helps them both. They take a little of the pressure off each other.”
UNLV heads into the NCAA Tournament on a 15-game winning streak, with a Mountain West regular-season title and conference tournament championship behind them.
Just like the past two years.
Most of the team has been there, done that, but not Kimpson.
How is she going to react to taking the NCAA Tournament stage for the first time?
“I have no idea,” Kimpson says with a laugh.
If the rest of the season is any indication, she’ll figure it out quickly.
This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.
