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USC Women Streak On, Collect 86-72 Win At UNLV
December 01, 2018 | Women's Basketball, Features
Minyon Moore cashes in with her second double-double of the year.
LAS VEGAS, NEV. — After a back-and-forth first half that saw nine ties and five lead changes, it was a strong third quarter surge that propelled the USC women's basketball team to an 86-72 road victory over the host UNLV Rebels this afternoon (Saturday, Dec. 1) at Cox Pavilion. With the win, the Women of Troy improve to 8-0 on the season while UNLV falls to 1-5 overall.
USC was once again led by junior Minyon Moore, who notched her second career double-double with 19 points and 10 assists to go along with four rebounds and two steals. She was followed closely behind by senior Mariya Moore, who played all 40 minutes and scored 18 points with seven boards and three assists. Two other Women of Troy joined the sisters in double digits, with redshirt freshman Shalexxus Aaron and senior Cheyanne Wallace scoring 13 and 12 points, respectively. The Rebels were paced by Nikki Wheatley's game-high 20 points and Latecia Smith's 14 off the bench.
Playing their fourth straight Mountain West opponent, USC was locked in a tight battle with the home team from the opening tip. Though falling behind by as many as seven early in the quarter, a 5-0 run jumpstarted by a Desiree Caldwell triple and back-to-back jumpers by Mariya Moore closed the gap to two. Minyon Moore would then score six straight, converting an and-one and hitting a 3-pointer with three minutes to go, but UNLV would answer to square things at 16-all. A bucket from freshman Jillian Archer down low and another Minyon triple would put USC ahead by four at the two-minute mark, but UNLV scored four straight to tie things at the end of the first, 21-21.
It was more of the same in the second, with the score evening five times throughout the period. Though UNLV would hit a three to open things, a string of five points by Wallace and five by junior Kayla Overbeck would tie it again at 30-all. Aaron, the nation's most efficient 3-point shooter, then hit her first triple of the night at the 4:31 mark and was followed by a three-point play from Mariya Moore to give USC its biggest lead at six, 37-31. The Rebels evened things up again at 37-37 and then hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with five seconds before the end of the half, but not before Wallace raced up the court to heave a near half-court shot that banked in to square things again, 42-42, after two periods.
The third quarter, however, was where USC made its move. After a tie game at 50-50, the Women of Troy ran out to a blistering 13-0 run thanks to three consecutive Aaron triples in a span of just 80 seconds. Four free throws by Minyon Moore were sprinkled in that run, thanks to two technical fouls called on UNLV's Wheatley and head coach Kathy Olivier to make the score 63-50. Buckets down low from Overbeck, Asiah Jones and another buzzer-beating three from Minyon Moore wrapped up the huge third period that saw USC outscore UNLV, 31-15, and take their biggest lead at 73-57.
In the fourth, Minyon would hit sister Mariya for a layup and then scored a scoop shot of her own to reach double digits and secure her double-double at the 6:04 mark. Wallace also reached double digits in the fourth and Mariya would hit her first triple of the night with three minutes remaining to sew up the solid 86-72 road win.
In total, every USC player who hit the court scored with the team shooting 54 percent from the field (32-for-59) and 47 percent from beyond the arc (8-for-17), while also outrebounding the Rebels 36-26 and outscoring them in the paint 46-22. Off the bench, Caldwell finished with five points, five assists and four boards, while the starter Overbeck recorded nine points. Furthermore, after going 10-for-23 from the stripe in their last game against Fresno State, the Women of Troy hit 14-of-17 (84%) tonight. USC has now won two out of the three meetings with UNLV played in the last four years.
Head coach Mark Trakh and the team will have a two-week break before returning to action against CSUN on Sunday (Dec. 16) at Galen Center for a 2 p.m. tilt with the Matadors.
