LAS VEGAS – UNLV Lady Rebels' head coach Lindy La Rocque expects her team to take some bumps and bruises during their stacked non-conference schedule.
"Going undefeated in non-conference play wins you nothing," she said after her group fell to No. 3 USC, 100-68, in the Hall of Fame Series season opener at T-Mobile Arena on Monday.
The going won't get any easier for the Lady Rebels soon either. They will face last year's NCAA Tournament participants UTSA and Arizona State in their next two games before making the daunting trip to Storrs to duel No. 2 UConn on Dec. 2.
La Rocque's intention behind having her team go through this type of gauntlet early doors is clear: be as prepared as possible to challenge for the championship when their Mountain West schedule begins.
"The message [to the players] is that this is just the start," she added. "The goal is to battle test our team so that when we come into conference play, we're not going to see anybody better than JuJu [Watkins], Saniyah [Hall], Jazzy [Davidson], Sarah Strong… That's the confidence we want to take into conference play when we get there.
"But we have to keep getting better, and we're going to take it one day at a time to be better for the next game."
The Lady Rebels put in a valiant effort against the Trojans and even won two of the four quarters while out-rebounding USC 40-35 across 40 minutes. However, the two frames UNLV lost got a little out of hand.
After a short back-and-forth in the first few minutes of the first quarter, USC heated up to take a 29-15 lead into the second. They led 48-33 at halftime before blowing the game wide open with a 31-10 third-quarter run.
The Trojans' ability to hurt the Lady Rebels with any combination of five players on the floor became detrimental in those stretches. USC has one of the deepest rosters in the country, and they flexed that muscle on the young UNLV side.
JuJu Watkins made her return after 588 days on the sidelines and dropped 21 points. Freshman Saniyah Hall led all scorers with 22 points and Jazzy Davidson added 21.
Freshman guard Jayla Constant and sophomore guard Maia Rosarion impressed in their UNLV debuts against as tough a matchup as they will ever see.
Rosarion paced the Lady Rebels in scoring with 12 points and added seven rebounds in 12 minutes off the bench. Constant poured in 10 points on 3-for-7 shooting. Elsewhere, Jasmyn Lott had 8 points, Meadow Roland posted 7 points, six rebounds, and two assists, and fellow debutant Norah Moo put up 6 points and grabbed seven boards.
La Rocque revealed postgame that Constant texted her in the morning, saying that she hadn't slept all night in anticipation of going up against Watkins.
The Lady Rebels' coach was proud of her promising primary ball-handler and excited for what she can accomplish moving forward. "She survived and came out better," La Rocque added.
La Rocque said that it is impossible to replicate the ways in which a team like USC challenges you in practices, and she knows that her team will benefit from the experience down the road. They will have to if they want to win the Mountain West title after finishing second last season.
UNLV's next opportunity to put those lessons into practice will come on Friday when they host UTSA at The Pavilion.
The night will be kicked off by the retirement of Las Vegas native Desi-Rae Young's No. 23 jersey prior to tipoff.
