ORANGEBURG, SC – The South Carolina State women, behind a balanced scoring attack and an effective second-half zone defense, defeated visiting UNLV 58-49 Saturday at SHM Memorial Center.

Starting senior guards Kemoni Jenkins and Rhein Beamon, along with junior forward Taylor Brown all scored 12 points in the victory. Center Jaquanna Murray and guard Esther Udonsi, also seniors, contributed eight and seven points, respectively, for Coach Audra Smith's team. Udonsi added a team-high seven rebounds and Brown six for the host Lady Bulldogs who improved to 6-5 on the season.

The visiting Lady Rebels, who played without two sidelined starters, were led by reserve LaTecia Smith with 13 points and Rodjanae Wade with 12 points and six boards. UNLV dropped to 1-7 on the year.

The SC State triumph was the first for the Lady Bulldogs over a major university since a 67-55 road win against Clemson during the 2012-2013 campaign, a year before Smith took over the reins of the Tigers of the ACC. Smith is in her first season as head coach at SC State.

"It's a great win for our program," Smith said. "I'm extremely proud of our team and the way we played for much of the game. We got the lead early, but UNLV -- being an experienced team -- came back to go ahead, however, we maintained our composure and eventually took control of the game.

"We switched to a zone defense that we had only worked on the day before, but our players executed it well, rotated well and UNLV had trouble scoring. Earlier, they were penetrating and getting the ball inside.

"I was also pleased at the way we executed on the offensive end. "We solved their zone, started getting inside, forcing them to foul and send us to the line. But, we didn't do a good job in knocking down free throws. We could have put the game away much earlier had we converted our free throws."

Smith's team got to the line often, but as she stated, the Lady Bulldogs didn't do a great job converting from the line, missing 16 of 36 attempts, including 12 of 30 tries in the second half.

The Lady Bulldogs took a 13-12 lead after one quarter but didn't get their first points of the second period until the 3:09 mark when Jenkins connected on a runner to bring SC State to within 20-15.  UNLV had scored the first eight points of the period to build a 20-13 lead on a Jordyn Bell layup with 7:40 left in the quarter. The Lady Rebels led 23-19 at the half.

SC State scored the first five points of the third period to regain the lead, 24-23, when Beamon made one of two from the line with 7:15 left. There was one tie and two lead changes before a 7-2 run, including five points by Brown, gave the Lady Bulldogs a 37-32 cushion after three periods.

The Lady Rebels got the first five points of the final quarter to deadlock the contest at 37-all with 8:02 remaining but SC State took control with a 7-0 run and a 44-37 cushion when Beamon connected on the first of two 3-pointers in the quarter with 6:21 on the clock.

Nikki Wheatley, who had seven points in the game, checked the Lady Bulldog rally with an inside basket for UNLV with 6:05 showing but back-to-back 3-pointers by Beamon and Udonsi gave SC State its biggest lead at 50-39 with 3:35 on the clock. The Lady Rebels could only get to within six points, 53-47, the rest of the way.

Smith's team will have just over a week off before resuming its schedule Dec. 19 against Wake Forest at the three-day Beach Ball Classic in Myrtle Beach.

"We welcome the break," Smith said. "Our team is tired. We played Winthrop last Saturday in a game we let get away (L58-50), then had to turn around Monday and play Bob Jones and Voorhees on Thursday before playing UNLV.

"We are still learning, still growing, but I see a thirsty team, a hungry team, still learning how to win. The effort is there and that's all a coach can ask for from your team."