No. 24 UNLV women hold off San Diego State 65-59

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Desi-Rae Young and Alyssa Brown had double-doubles to lead No. 24 UNLV to a sluggish 65-59 victory over San Diego State on Saturday.

Young had 15 points with 11 rebounds and Brown had 14 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots for UNLV (27-2, 17-0 Mountain West). Justice Etheridge added 13 points and Essence Booker scored 12.

Four players scored in a 9-2 run to open the fourth quarter, giving UNLV a 55-47 advantage with 7:23 remaining. Much like a similar drought in the third quarter, UNLV went four minutes without a point and by the time Young hit a jumper with 3:12 to go the Lady Rebels’ lead was only 57-53. Young’s layup at 1:10 was the second and last UNLV field goal of the final seven minutes. Booker, who was 6-for-6 from the line in the fourth quarter, closed out the win with four free throws in the final minute.

UNLV led 46-41 with 4:06 remaining in the third quarter but did not score the rest of the period. Yummy Morris hit a hook shot in the final second to get the Aztecs within 46-45 heading to the fourth.

Mercedes Staples, who made 5 of 6 3-pointers, scored 17 points for San Diego State (21-9, 11-6). Morris and Sophia Ramos had 12 each.

San Diego State led 16-12 after one quarter and two 3-pointers from Staples helped give them a 24-14 lead with 7:53 remaining before halftime. The Lady Rebels tied it at 27 on a three-point play by Brown with 3:09 to go. Etheridge scored the next five points for UNLV, her 3-pointer with two seconds left giving the Lady Rebels a 32-31 halftime lead.

UNLV closes out the regular season at Nevada on Tuesday. The Lady Rebels lead the conference by five games in the loss column and will be the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament in Las Vegas.

San Diego State hosts Air Force on Tuesday and could finish as a high as a tie for second place.

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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25