San Diego State Stuns Top-Seeded UNLV Lady Rebels, Eliminates Them From Mountain West Tournament

In a stunning upset on Tuesday night, the No. 4 seed San Diego State Aztecs knocked off the top-seeded UNLV Lady Rebels and ousted them from the Mountain West Conference Tournament. The Lady Rebs were the heavy favorites in this game, and the Aztecs dominated them with a double-digit victory by a score of 71 - 59.

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— UNLV Lady Rebels (@UNLVLadyRebels) March 12, 2025

It was a devastating loss for the women of UNLV basketball. They had won this tournament three-straight years in a row and earned themselves an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Now they will have to sit home and watch while they hope the selection committee includes them in the March Madness.

Lindy La Rocque was nearly at a loss of words following the rare conference tournament loss, saying, “I don’t honestly have a ton of words because we haven’t done this much, which is a good thing. In the locker room with the team, here with you, I haven’t been here before. When you’re at the top and you get knocked off, the fall is long and hard, and it hurts.”

Seniors Alyssa Brown and Kiara Jackson struggled to even get words out through their tears after potentially seeing their college careers come to an unexpected and abrupt end.

“I just stopped crying,” Brown said. “It meant everything, honestly. The love I have for the program and Lindy, for the staff, there’s no words for it. I’ve had a great time at UNLV.”

“It means a lot,” Jackson struggled to get out. “Even though we lost tonight, we definitely made our legacy in this league.”

The Aztecs will now go on to play the No. 2 seed Wyoming Cowgirls, and the Mountain West Conference will crown a new tournament champion this year. All is not lost for the Lady Rebels, however; there is still a chance they will be chosen to compete in the NCAA Tournament. They are a talented enough and well-coached team that if they get into the tournament, they could make some real noise. No one will want to be matched up against them in their bracket.

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