By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The UNLV Lady Rebels raced behind guard Jasmyn Lott to a 69-51 victory Friday night, handing the UTSA Roadrunners a loss in their season opener at Las Vegas.
Lott, a 5-8 senior guard, exploded for 11 of her game-high 22 points as the Rebels expanded a six-point halftime lead to 16 going into the fourth.
UTSA never came closer than 15 in the last quarter.
Guard Damara Allen produced 17 points and six rebounds to lead the Roadrunners, who were held to 26.7 percent shooting from the field. In addition, they were hounded into 21 turnovers, though some of them early were unforced.
In UNLV, UTSA opened its season against one of the strongest mid-major programs in the Western United States.
The Lady Rebels had won 26, 31, 30, 26 and 21 games over the last five seasons under Coach Lindy La Rocque.
They lost their opener at home on Monday, falling 100-68 to the third-ranked Southern Cal Trojans. But they bounced back in their second outing, downing UTSA in a non-conference game for the second year in a row. UNLV won 66-39 last season in San Antonio.
Hopes were high for UTSA coming into the opener. The Roadrunners surged at the end of last season to win the American Conference’s postseason title. With the championship came the program’s first bid to the NCAA tournament in 17 years.
They played well early against the Mountain West Conference’s Lady Rebels, forging four-point leads three times in the opening period, only to fall victim to their ball-handling and shooting woes.
“I don’t want to over-react,” UTSA coach Karen Aston told the team’s radio broadcast. “It was the first game of the year. I felt like we would have some jitters and some uncertainty about ourselves. You know, it’s going to take us a good while to figure out who we are and how to play together.”
Aston said she thinks her team “has a long way to go” to reach its potential.
“I mean, we have a lot that we have to get fixed, and this schedule is not going to lend (itself) to having a lot of time to do it, so it’s going to be challenging for this group,” she told broadcaster Neal Raphael.
Despite giving up a lead and falling behind in the second quarter, the Roadrunners weren’t out of it as they went into the dressing room at intermission.
Regardless, their offensive woes continued in the third period, and the game slipped away from them.
“We talked at half about how we were defending pretty well,” the coach said. “(But) we came out of half and got discouraged because we couldn’t score, and then our defense fell apart in the third quarter. All we did was foul in the third quarter. So, just a lot, a lot, a lot that we have to improve on.”
First half
Lott scored nine of her 11 first-half points in the second quarter, and the UNLV Lady Rebels outscored the UTSA Roadrunners 15-7 en route to a 27-21 lead at the intermission.
She hit back to back 3-pointers as UNLV took charge midway through the period.
UTSA’s offense went completely cold in the quarter. The Roadrunners hit only two of 13 shots from the field and committed six turnovers. At one point, they went more than four minutes without scoring.
The Roadrunners controlled the game for most of the first period. Hitting the boards hard, they finished the quarter with a 14-12 edge. Guard Kierra Merchant scored five points off the bench to spark the offense.
Records
UTSA 0-1
UNLV 1-1
Coming up
UTSA at San Diego State, 3 p.m.
Notable
The Roadrunners’ starting lineup scored 38 points. Outside of Damara Allen’s 17, the others struggled. Mia Hammonds, saddled with two fouls early, hit one for nine from the field. Idara Udo was one for five and Adriana Robles two for seven.
Praise Egharevba, a transfer from Oklahoma State playing her first game at UTSA, contributed nine points and three rebounds. She shot four for 10.
Hammonds, Allen and Udo each had four turnovers. As a team, the Roadrunners didn’t move the ball well, but even when they did, they seemed to have a hard time converting at the rim. Victims of several misses at the rim, the team finished with only six assists.
Guard Kierra Merchant, a transfer from Houston, scored five points in the first quarter but was held scoreless the rest of the way in her UTSA debut. She finished with five points, seven rebounds and three steals.
Maya Linton and Taylor Ross played in their first game since the end of the 2024-25 season after sitting out last year with injuries. Ross played 19 minutes and Linton 14.
Linton finished with two points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal. The fifth-year senior was zero for two from the field. Ross also scored two points and pulled down seven rebounds. Combined, the two were zero for seven from the field.