LAS VEGAS — If the Lady Rebels' exhibition against Cal State LA was a preview of the 2026-27 season, the headline writes itself: the paint belongs to UNLV.
Behind a double-double from Mountain West Preseason Player of the Year Meadow Roland and a monster debut from Grand Canyon transfer Norah Moo, UNLV beat the Golden Eagles 89-81 on Tuesday, Oct. 27, at The Pavilion. Four Lady Rebels finished in double figures. The final margin, though, doesn't tell the whole story, and neither does the comfortable lead UNLV built before letting it get closer than it should have.
Meadow Roland Looked Like the Preseason POY
There's a reason the Mountain West picked Roland as its Preseason Player of the Year, and she wasted no time showing it. The redshirt junior forward led all Lady Rebels with 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, working inside and finishing through contact against a Cal State LA frontcourt that simply didn't have an answer.
Coming off an All-Mountain West first-team season, Roland is the centerpiece of this roster, and Tuesday night looked like a player who knows it.
Norah Moo Made Her Presence Known
If you didn't know Norah Moo's name before Tuesday, you do now. The 6-foot-2 forward from Wheaton, Illinois, spent her freshman season at Mountain West rival Grand Canyon, and in her first game in scarlet and gray she posted 13 points and a team-high 15 rebounds.
Nine of those boards came on the offensive glass. Nine. That's the kind of effort play that wins you extra possessions in conference play, and it's exactly what La Rocque's teams have built their identity on. Moo was tied for second on the team in scoring, and her motor next to Roland gives UNLV a frontcourt pairing that could be a problem for a lot of teams this season.
Dominating Inside
The numbers back up what you saw on the floor:
Points in the paint: UNLV 56, Cal State LA 22
Rebounds: UNLV 48, Cal State LA 32
Field goals: UNLV 33-of-70 (47%)
Turnovers forced: 18, which UNLV turned into 29 points
A 34-point edge in the paint is not a coincidence. That's a game plan, and UNLV executed it.
The Second Half Is the Film Session
Now for the part La Rocque will be circling. UNLV came out strong, leading 25-22 after one, then put the clamps on in the second quarter, holding Cal State LA to just nine points to take a 47-31 lead into the break. The Lady Rebels stretched the lead to as many as 24 in the third quarter.
Then the Golden Eagles found a rhythm. Cal State LA scored 26 in the third and 24 in the fourth, outscoring UNLV 50-42 after halftime. It's an exhibition, rotations were loose, and nobody is panicking. But giving up 50 second-half points to a Division II opponent is the kind of thing that gets addressed before conference play.
The Bottom Line
Exhibitions are about learning, and UNLV learned plenty. The frontcourt of Roland and Moo looks legit, the rebounding edge is real, and the defense showed what it can do in that second quarter. Keeping that intensity for 40 minutes is the next step.
The Lady Rebels are back at The Pavilion on Friday, Nov. 6, against UTSA to open a seven-game homestand. HGN will be there.
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