Lady Rebels come up short against No. 4 CSU, Hammon

It was a play that has become all too familiar to Western Athletic Conference women's teams over the last four years.

A little over a minute into the second half of Thursday night's game against UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center, Colorado State senior guard Becky Hammon set up to the left of the key and fired up a 3-pointer.

Swish.

With that, the 5-6 senior from Stevens High School in Rapid City, S.D., became the WAC's all-time leading scorer for both men and women, surpassing the mark of 2,542 set by former Utah standout Keith Van Horn (1993-97).

Hammon, who came into the contest needing 21 points to surpass Van Horn's mark, would go on to tie a career high with 42 points. And the fourth-ranked Rams (28-1) needed every one of them to hold off a determined UNLV squad, 75-68.

Hammon, the WAC leader in 3-point field goals, connected on 13-of-26 shots from the floor, including 7-of-15 3-pointers. She also sank 9-of-11 free throws, dished off five assists and grabbed six rebounds in 40 minutes on the floor.

And although it was her 3-pointer with 18:52 to go that broke Van Horn's mark, it was another trey from the top of the key with 5:41 to go that proved the key basket of the game. That one gave Colorado State a 63-57 edge after UNLV's Amy Wunderlich had cut the Ram lead to three with an inside layup.

Hammon pulled up on a fast break to hit another 3-pointer a minute later to give CSU a 66-58 edge. UNLV never got any closer than four points after that.

"It feels good," Hammon said of her record. "It wasn't anything I was aiming to do tonight. It's a huge compliment to my teammates and coaches that I could accomplish something like this."

"Becky Hammon is a great player," UNLV coach Regina Miller said. "When the game is on the line you know that they're going to go to her. I thought Kristen Pool did an excellent job on her. We were in her face for the most part."

Indeed, it's hard to imagine just how many points Hammon would have scored if not for solid defense by the 5-5 Pool.

"I was playing as hard as I could," Pool said with a smile afterward. "You think you're doing a good job and then you look up at the scoreboard and you see she has (42) points. ... Oh, well."

Hammon's record performance overshadowed a triple-double by UNLV freshman guard Linda Froehlich, who finished with 14 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists. However, the 6-2 freshman also had eight turnovers and sank just 5 of her 19 field goals.

Still, UNLV (15-10), which will likely play the Rams again on Wednesday night here if it can win its first-round game in the WAC tournament on Monday, could come away with something of a moral victory. Unlike the first time the teams played in Fort Collins, when CSU cruised to a 91-55 victory, the Lady Rebels were in this one to the end.

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