UNLV survives second-half doldrums to top Tulsa

For 20 minutes Thursday night, the UNLV women's basketball team may have played its best game of the season.

Fortunately for the Lady Rebels, they built enough of a lead in the first half to survive a case of the second-half blahs and hand Tulsa a 61-46 Western Athletic Conference defeat at Lied Gymnasium.

Although UNLV improved to 14-7 overall and 5-4 in the WAC, head coach Regina Miller was less than thrilled with her team's inability to deliver a knockout blow in the second half.

"I thought we had one run early in the second half and we got the lead up to 20-something and then we let up," Miller said. "We recognize we didn't play up to our capabilities and we're not happy."

Trailing 7-6 early in the game, the Lady Rebels went on a 24-6 run in the final 15 minutes of the first half and took a commanding 30-13 lead into the intermission.

The Lady Rebels built the lead to 25 (40-15) four minutes into the second half, then went into a funk -- although Tulsa never got closer than 12 points the rest of the way. UNLV committed 17 turnovers in the second half and finished the game with 29.

"Usually when our subs come off the bench, they give us a lift with some intensity and energy and that just didn't happen tonight," Miller said. "We talked about goals, increasing our lead in the first five minutes of the second half so they wouldn't get complacent, so they wouldn't get sloppy.

"We came out and we were a little sluggish but then we made a run and we did increase our lead. That was the only run we had in that half where we played pretty consistently."

UNLV freshman Linda Froehlich scored 14 of her game-high 25 points in the second half and added eight steals and had seven rebounds.

Senior guard Kristen Pool added 13 points and nine assists for the Lady Rebels and senior center Liz Wolfe also reached double figures in scoring with 12 points. Angie Dye paced UNLV with nine rebounds.

Junior guard Kasie Pittman led the Golden Hurricane with 10 points and was the only Tulsa player to score in double figures.

The Lady Rebels conclude the four-game homestand on Saturday night when they host Rice at 7:35 at Lied Gymnasium.

TULSA (5-17)

Wagner 3-6 2-3 8, Morrow 2-3 0-0 4, Dinkens 0-4 2-2 2, Goyne 0-5 2-2 2, Pittman 4-12 1-2 10, Stagner 3-10 0-0 6, Smith 3-5 2-3 8, Henkelmann 3-5 0-0 6. Totals 18-50 9-12 46.

UNLV (14-7)

Dye 2-7 2-4 6, Johansson 1-6 0-0 2, Wolfe 5-9 2-2 12, Pool 3-5 5-6 13, Froehlich 8-19 6-6 25, Wunderlich 1-3 0-0 2, Webster 0-0 0-0 0, Ingalls 0-0 0-0 0, Onion 0-0 1-2 1, Swanson 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 20-51 16-20 61.

Halftime: UNLV 30, TU 13. 3-point goals: TU 1-13 (Wagner 0-2, Goyne 0-2, Pittman 1-4, Stagner 0-5), UNLV 5-16 (Johansson 0-4, Pool 2-4, Froehlich 3-7, Swanson 0-1). Fouled out: none. Rebounds: TU 29 (Morrow 5, Dinkens 5), UNLV 39 (Dye 9). Assists: TU 9 (Wagner 2, Pittman 2, Stagner 2), UNLV 15 (Pool 9). Blocked shots: TU 1 (Wagner), UNLV 6 (Dye 4). Steals: TU 13 (Pittman 5), UNLV 20 (Froehlich 8). Total fouls: TU 17, UNLV 17.

A--316.

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