Rams drop regular-season finale at UNLV, 60-45

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LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The Colorado State women's basketball team fell to the UNLV Lady Rebels, 60-45, on Thursday night in the Rams' 2018-19 regular-season finale at the Cox Pavilion.

With the result, Colorado State (8-21, 2-16 MW) will be the No. 11 seed in the 2019 Air Force Reserve Mountain West Women's Basketball Championship and will play sixth-seeded Utah State (15-14, 10-8 MW) on Sunday at 8 p.m. MT/7 p.m. PT at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev.

Junior guard Mollie Mounsey led Colorado State offensively with 10 points and grabbed a team-high six rebounds. Senior forward Tatum Neubert scored nine points, while senior guard Myanne Hamm tallied eight on 3-for-3 shooting. UNLV (12-17, 10-8 MW) was paced by Nikki Wheatley, who registered a game-high 19 points.

Colorado State led for 9:39 on Thursday, holding sustained leads early in the first quarter and into the second quarter despite shooting just 25 percent in the first half. The Rams lost the lead within the first three minutes of the second quarter, but held UNLV to just 28 percent shooting and won the turnover battle (two compared to seven for UNLV) to limit the deficit to 23-21 at halftime.

UNLV improved its shooting in the third quarter to 58 percent (7-for-12), while CSU made just one field goal over the next six minutes to fall behind, 39-25, at the 4:00 mark. CSU cut the lead to 41-32 by the end of the third, but UNLV reestablished the double-digit lead and built it to as large as 17 at 52-35 with 7:07 to play. The Rams cut the deficit to as close as 52-43, but could not get no closer before the final 60-45 score.

IN THEIR WORDS
Colorado State head coach Ryun Williams
"It's tournament time. Put somebody in front of us and try to beat us. … We always talk defense, but let's face it – we've got to score the ball. Guard play is so important this time of year and the ball is in their hands a lot this time of year. We're going to have to play well from that spot. We'll have to shoot it well, obviously. We'll come out hungry. I thought our kids really battled tonight. I was really happy with the effort, but it's just frustrating that we don't reward ourselves (with a win), but that's been all year. Our kids fought really hard tonight."

On the team entering tournament play:
"It is fun. You walk into the arena, the Thomas & Mack, and there's a tournament vibe. It is fun, whatever seed you are, it just doesn't matter. What do we have to lose? If we can create the opportunities for ourselves and have the 'let it go' mentality … Tonight we did that in stretches, but we're going to have to do it more often against a really good Utah State team."

NOTES

Junior guard Mollie Mounsey led Colorado State in scoring for the ninth time this season.
Mounsey has now led CSU in rebounding in six games this season.
Thursday's game marked the second time this season that Mounsey has led the Rams in both points and rebounds in a single game (Dec. 15 at BYU).
Mounsey has scored in double figures in 14 games this season.

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