Greenwood shoots New Mexico past ‘snake-bitten’ UNLV

Intent to silence the crowd, Hugh Greenwood accomplished his goal shot by shot.

In the end, he quieted all but one small corner of the Thomas & Mack Center.

Greenwood hit six 3-pointers and scored 22 points to lift New Mexico to a 71-69 victory over UNLV on Wednesday night, sending the Rebels to their sixth loss in seven games.

Greenwood claimed he found the anger and inspiration he needed from a UNLV fan who taunted him via Twitter about his ailing mother, Andree, who was in remission for breast cancer before it returned last summer.

“Without getting too much into it, because it makes me pretty mad that he’s hiding behind a Twitter account, I’d love to see him face to face,” Greenwood said. “It definitely motivated me. I was going to turn it into a positive.”

He definitely delivered the message, and Jordan Goodman provided the exclamation point for the Lobos by scoring the winning basket on an offensive rebound and layup with 9.1 seconds to go.

Greenwood, a senior guard, came into the game shooting 28.8 percent from 3-point range, but when he was left open, he made the Rebels pay for it.

UNLV (10-9, 1-5 Mountain West) suffered through another negative result in a down-to-the-wire conference game.

“We’re just a little bit snakebitten right now, and we’ve got to fight our way back,” coach Dave Rice said. “Another conference loss that was a one-possession game. It’s one play here or there. We are very, very close, and yet it feels like a million miles away.”

The Rebels have dropped five league games by a total of 24 points, including a nine-point loss in overtime.

“It’s very frustrating,” freshman guard Rashad Vaughn said. “We were fighting through the whole game, and to come up short, it’s very frustrating.”

Chris Wood finished with 20 points and nine rebounds, and Vaughn and Patrick McCaw had 13 points apiece for UNLV.

After Goodman attacked the rim from the weak side to rebound Deshawn Delaney’s miss, the Rebels had an opportunity to tie the score. But Jelan Kendrick was stripped by Delaney driving to the rim with two seconds left.

Rice said the plan was to play through McCaw and Wood on the final possession, but that never materialized, and Kendrick found a path through the lane. When he fell to the floor, the crowd of 12,125 went silent, except for the fans behind the visitors’ bench.

UNLV needed a late rally to get in position to win.

After Vaughn missed a 3-point try from the wing, Kendrick rebounded and was falling out of bounds as he bounced a pass to Wood, who dunked to tie the score at 69 with 39 seconds remaining.

Greenwood’s third 3-pointer put New Mexico in front 44-40 with 14:11 left.

But the Lobos (13-6, 5-2) were whistled for six fouls — to zero for the Rebels — in the first 6:07 of the second half, giving New Mexico coach Craig Neal good reason to ride the officials. UNLV was in the bonus at the 11:47 mark, so cashing in at the free-throw line figured to be a major key down the stretch.

Vaughn’s 3 from the top capped a 7-0 run for the Rebels, who briefly surged ahead 50-48 with 10:50 to go. Greenwood countered with two more 3s, and the Lobos led 60-56 with 6:26 left.

It was tied at 60 before Greenwood buried his sixth 3-pointer at the five-minute mark. Thirty seconds later, McCaw spotted up from deep and tied the score again.

McCaw was the most effective player on the floor in the first 20 minutes. He totaled eight points, six assists and four rebounds to lift UNLV to a 35-33 halftime lead.

The Rebels shot 50 percent (12 of 24) from the field, but they were under stress on almost every possession. New Mexico put on full-court pressure and fell back into a zone defense, and both approaches worked as UNLV was forced into seven turnovers and launched 16 3-pointers.

Jordan Cornish connected for two of the team’s six 3s as the Rebels maintained a slim lead for most of the half.

UNLV made 18 of 21 free throws, including 13 of 16 after halftime.

“We’ve got to figure out a way to get over the hump and figure out a way to close games,” Cornish said.

Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyoumans247.