Huge offensive night lifts women’s hoop team over Rebels, 98-81

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    By ANNA HAYNIE

    When the dust settled and the cat fight was over, the Cougars looked around to see that they were on top, way on top.

    The women’s basketball team turned a six-point, half-time deficit into a 19-point win against the UNLV Rebels Thursday night at the Marriott Center, 98-81.

    The Cougars came out and turned a slow start in the first half into a night of many records.

    Stacey Jensen led the team’s highest scoring game of the season with a huge 30 points. She more than doubled her career high of 14, with four treys.

    Jensen was followed by Jennifer Leitner who came off the bench to tie her career high 19 points. She also led the team in rebounds with a career high 10 boards. This was Leitner’s first double-double.

    Three other Cougars were in the double digits Thursday night, Feb. 10. Erin Thorn scored 15, Lori Cuff had 13, and Jill Adams brought in 10.

    “What I want to know is what the coach said to them at half-time,” one fan commented of the turnaround.

    Coach Shippen said that he had to get after the girls a little bit after the first half.

    “We’ve got to get out there and play a full 40 minutes or else we’re going to get beat,” he said.

    Whatever he said, it worked.

    “I think intensity picked up for the whole team,” Jensen said. “We came out and won the first five minutes in the second half, and then just kept it up.”

    Jensen didn’t take much credit for her amazing performance last night.

    “They were just leaving me open, giving me the shots,” she said.

    Shippen handed a lot of the credit to the Cougars’ defensive performance.

    “The defense just created our offense tonight,” he said. “Even though we scored a lot of points, our defense was the key to the game.”

    UNLV’s sophomore star, Linda Frohlich, still led the Rebels with 31 points, followed by Constance Jinks and Erin Johansson, who added 16 points and 12 points respectively.

    The Cougars came out after a nasty first half where they shot 39 percent and allowed UNLV 57 percent from the field. With a turnaround in the second half, the Cougars almost matched UNLV with 53 percent and UNLV dropped to 40 percent.

    Leitner credited her performance to the support of her parents.

    “My parents were in the crowd and they sparked me,” she said. “Dad’s always telling me to shoot the ball, and I finally did.”

    From seven minutes into the second half, the Cougars owned the court, hitting almost every shot they took.

    “We gave up too many shots on the open court,” UNLV’s head coach, Regina Miller, said.

    The Cougars’ performance Thursday night boosted them up to 15-6, 5-3, while the Rebels dropped to 11-10 and 3-5.

    Up next, the Cougars face SDSU in the Marriott center on Saturday. Tip-off is at 3 p.m.

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