For stretches Tuesday night in Bozeman, UNLV looked capable of stealing a quality November road win. The Rebels shot efficiently, found scoring from multiple spots in the rotation, and steadied themselves after a turbulent opening few minutes.

But the game kept circling back to one problem: Montana State simply created more opportunities.

Despite shooting 48.4% from the field and 41.7% from three, UNLV fell 94-81 because it couldn’t withstand the Bobcats’ relentless pressure on the possession margin. Montana State forced 23 turnovers, pulled down 25 offensive rebounds, and converted those extra chances into 21 points off turnovers, 20 second-chance points, and 1.19 points per possession across 79 trips.

The Bobcats controlled the game for 33 minutes and 30 seconds. UNLV led for less than three. The Rebels kept making shots. They just couldn’t stop giving Montana State more of them.

The opening 10 minutes offered a snapshot of the night to come.

Montana State struck first, stacking a 7-0 lead behind an Addison Harris layup, an Isobel Bunyan three, and a second-chance bucket from Ella Johnson. UNLV, meanwhile, opened with an offensive foul and turnover from Aaliyah Alexander, followed by a missed transition layup, an early sign of the execution issues that would linger throughout the game.

Once the Rebels settled in, the momentum shifted.

Alexander jump-started the offense with a layup and a three, cutting the deficit to 7-5. From there, Meadow Roland and Jasmyn Lott began establishing themselves around the basket. Roland’s activity on the glass and Lott’s work in the midrange fueled a 9-0 run, flipping the scoreboard and giving UNLV its best stretch of the night.

By the 2:56 mark, Roland’s layup pushed the Rebels ahead 15-11, their largest lead, built through half-court poise and repeated second opportunities.

Montana State answered quickly.

Teagan Erickson knocked down a three to stop the run, and Brooke Fatupaito converted a transition jumper off a turnover. Mariah Elohim briefly nudged UNLV back in front with a driving layup (17-16), but the Bobcats closed the quarter with the decisive final push.

Over the last 47 seconds:

UNLV ended the first quarter down three, having already seen the recurring pattern: the offense could manufacture good looks, but every turnover or missed boxout opened the door for Montana State to turn small mistakes into meaningful swings on the scoreboard.

If there was a hinge point, it came in the second quarter.

For the first several minutes, the game was a straight exchange of punches. Jasmyn Lott answered an early Harris three with a jumper and a three of her own. Kadynce Couture knocked down a three for Montana State, but UNLV countered with second-chance buckets from Teagan Colvin and Erica Collins.

At 6:52, Lott tied the game at 28-28. At 6:09, Aaliyah Alexander pulled up from midrange to level it again at 30-30. On the road, against a team that had already landed the first big blow in the opening quarter, UNLV had clawed all the way back to even.

Then the game turned.

From that 30-30 mark with 6:09 left in the half, Montana State closed on a 17-7 run, built on the exact issues that would define UNLV’s night: live-ball turnovers and offensive rebounds.

The key sequence unfolded quickly:

UNLV never fully recovered from that barrage.

The Rebels managed to briefly stop the bleeding. Destiny Brown scored on a second-chance layup (39-32), Elohim canned a three (43-35), and free throws from Elohim and Teagan Colvin nudged the margin back to single digits. But Montana State kept manufacturing extra possessions.

Chirrick capitalized on another extended trip to hit a second-chance three, and in the final minute, the Bobcats stacked multiple offensive rebounds, drew a foul, split free throws, and then watched Chirrick knife in for a putback to push the lead to 47-37 at halftime.

In just over six minutes, UNLV went from tied at 30-30 to trailing by 10. The Rebels’ offense didn’t collapse; they simply lost the possession battle so decisively that the scoreboard followed.

UNLV came out of the locker room throwing punches.

The Rebels hung 44 second-half points on Montana State, including 29 in the third quarter, and shot their way back into contention. After the break, UNLV hit 53.8% from the field, 70% from three, and 69.2% at the line, looking every bit like a team capable of flipping the script.

The scoring load was spread across the core of the rotation. Aaliyah Alexander continued to score at all three levels. Mariah Elohim stretched the floor with deep threes. Meadow Roland and Shelbee Brown did the dirty work inside, carving out space for putbacks and rebounds. Jasmyn Lott chipped in with drives and timely midrange touches.

Offensively, it was enough to keep the game within reach. Defensively and on the glass, the same issues kept resurfacing.

Every time UNLV threatened to close the gap, Montana State answered either with a timely three or yet another extended possession. Addison Harris and Teagan Erickson dictated the frontcourt battle, while Taylee Chirrick and Ella Johnson repeatedly turned minor UNLV miscues into major Bobcat momentum swings.

The game was effectively decided in the fourth quarter.

Down 73-66 entering the final frame, UNLV had a window to make one last run. Instead, the Rebels went 1-for-8 from the field in their final meaningful stretch and committed six turnovers in the last 4:28. Montana State pounced, stringing together a 10-0 run that blew the margin out to 92-78 with 1:16 remaining, the Bobcats’ largest lead of the night.

Alexander’s late three trimmed it briefly to 92-81, but the damage was done. Montana State closed it out at 94-81, sealing a game in which UNLV’s shot-making kept giving them a chance, and the possession game kept taking it away.

On paper, UNLV’s offensive profile was good enough to win a lot of road games:

The problem was that everything was wrapped around those makes.

Montana State owned the leverage categories:

From there, the efficiency gap tells the rest:

UNLV didn’t lose because it couldn’t score. UNLV lost because it gave a good offensive team too many chances to keep proving it.

Aaliyah Alexander – 18 points, 4-of-7 from three, 4 rebounds, 3 assists
Alexander’s night mirrored UNLV’s overall arc: a choppy start, then long stretches where she looked like the best perimeter scorer on the floor. After the early charge and turnover, she settled in as the Rebels’ primary creator, hitting four threes and repeatedly bailing out possessions when the offense stalled.

Mariah Elohim – 15 points, 5-of-10 FG, 4-of-8 from three
Elohim continues to look ahead of schedule. Her range stretches the floor in ways this roster badly needs, and she’s already comfortable stepping into big-moment threes. The four turnovers are part of the freshman learning curve, but the gravity she brings is already reshaping how defenses guard UNLV.

Meadow Roland – 13 points, 6-of-9 FG, 8 rebounds, 1 block
Roland was UNLV’s most consistent interior presence. She protected the rim (including an early block on Taylee Chirrick), finished through contact, and kept possessions alive on the offensive glass. Her minutes steadied things whenever the game threatened to tilt completely toward Montana State.

Shelbee Brown – 8 points, 11 rebounds
On a night when Montana State lived on second chances, Brown still managed to carve out an 11-rebound performance and absorbed much of the physical work around the rim. She drew contact, got to the line, and did a lot of the unseen work that kept UNLV from getting blown out earlier.

Jasmyn Lott – 13 points, 6-of-11 FG, 4 rebounds, 2 assists
Lott’s second quarter was one of the key reasons UNLV was tied at 30-30. She answered Bobcat threes, hit midrange pull-ups, and repeatedly got downhill to keep the Rebels within a possession or two. When she’s in attack mode, the offense operates at a different tempo.

Teagan Colvin (5 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists) and Destiny Brown (4 points, 4 rebounds) rounded out a rotation that, purely from a scoring and talent standpoint, looked more than capable of competing with a Big Sky contender.

This wasn’t a case of a random role player catching fire. Montana State’s primary pieces drove the result.

Addison Harris – 26 points, 10-of-16 FG, 5-of-9 from three, +20
Harris was the matchup UNLV never fully answered. She closed the first quarter with big plays, blew open the second with threes and and-ones, and finished with an ultra-efficient 26 points on 16 shots. Her +20 in 29 minutes tells you how different the game looked whenever she was on the floor.

Taylee Chirrick – 16 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 7 steals, +18
Chirrick was the chaos engine. She piled up seven steals, crashed the glass for 10 rebounds, and constantly sat at the center of Montana State’s run, either forcing the turnover, extending the possession, or making the final play.

Teagan Erickson – 13 points, 10 rebounds (5 offensive)
Erickson’s box score doesn’t scream star, but her impact did. Five offensive rebounds and multiple extended trips came at exactly the wrong time for UNLV, especially during the second-quarter surge and key third-quarter moments when the Rebels were trying to string together stops.

The Bobcats also got real support from the bench, which outscored UNLV’s reserves 32-24 and kept the pressure level high:

Montana State never had to compromise its identity when it went to the bench. The defensive activity and rebounding edge stayed intact.

There’s a version of this game where UNLV walks out of Bozeman with a statement non-conference road win. The Rebels:

But Montana State spotlighted two issues that will define how quickly UNLV’s potential becomes its baseline:

Turnover Management
Twenty-three turnovers, many of them live-ball, to a team that thrives on steals is not survivable. It fueled Montana State’s transition game, juiced their efficiency, and erased long stretches of good half-court offense. That’s the first item on the growth checklist.

Finishing Defensive Possessions
On the surface, UNLV won the rebounding battle 47-42. In reality, the game was decided on the offensive boards. The Rebels’ first-shot defense was often good enough; it just didn’t end the possession. Turn those replays into one-and-done trips, and the entire statistical profile swings.

The encouraging piece for UNLV: none of this feels like a talent ceiling issue. It looks like a reps, composure, and details issue fixable problems for a team still early in its identity-building phase.

The film from Bozeman will be unforgiving but useful. The offense is trending in the right direction, the hierarchy of playmakers is starting to come into focus, and the flaws are now clearly defined.

Final: Montana State 94, UNLV 81.

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