After starting off the year with 12 straight wins, the Lady Bulldogs decided to take a trip to Las Vegas for the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic. This yearly event includes Old Dominion, Miami (OH), and the University of Illinois-Chicago. Saturday evening, Vic Schaefer’s squad faced off against the UIC Lady Flames. The Flames came into the game with an 8-1 record. Their only loss came on the road to Northwestern University by a 61-40 clip. However, they did manage to defeat Miami (OH) on the road by 3.

Saturday night’s affair at the South Point Hotel Arena started off hot for the Lady Bulldogs. They jumped out to a 21-8 lead through the first half, but the Flames started fighting back. With under 3 minutes to play in the first half, Martha Alwal got three points the old-fashioned way and passed Nitra Perry for the #14 spot on the MSU All-time scoring list with 1,129 points. At the half, the Bulldogs had a 39-18 lead and two players with 10 points (Dominique Dillingham and Kendra Grant). The Lady Bulldogs shot 38.7% from the field with a 35.7% shooting clip from beyond the arc. When the Bulldogs made it to the line, they hit most of their shots as they went 10-12 in the first half from the charity stripe. The Bulldog defense was stingy in the first half, causing 15 turnovers and getting 17 points off of those turnovers. Also, going with the theme of the year, 22 of the Bulldogs’ 39 points came from the bench.

In the second half, the Lady Dawgs decided that they weren’t going to let the Lady Flames come back in this one. The Bulldogs extended their lead to a 37 point spread. They ended up with a 32.5% shooting percentage by the end of the game, and had a 36.4% percentage from behind the arc. The Bulldogs won the battle of the boards as they had 55 total rebounds compared to UCI’s 44. The all-important assist-to-turnover ratio wasn’t what the Bulldogs wanted as it ended up being 12 to 14, which is a lot better than the ratio for UCI which ended up at 4 to 30. The Bulldogs ended up winning 73-36 and now has the record for the most consecutive wins in school history, and continues extending the record for the best start in school history with a 13-0 record thus far.

The Lady Bulldogs will face off Sunday against the Miami of Ohio Redhawks. They Redhawks currently hold a 2-6 record following a 69-63 loss to Old Dominion in the first game of the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic. Tip-off is set for 6:00 PM CST.