3 takeaways from UNLV’s 68-56 win over Wyoming
Three takeaways from UNLV’s 68-56 victory over Wyoming on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center:
1. UNLV held serve.
The Rebels opened Mountain West play as substantial favorites against Colorado State and Wyoming and won both games.
It didn’t matter that UNLV struggled to beat Colorado State 78-76 on Wednesday and was down two points at halftime to the Cowboys. The Rebels, using a 16-2 run, took control in the second half.
This is UNLV’s first 2-0 start in conference play in 13 years, especially important given the soft early part of its schedule.
Now it gets more difficult with Tuesday’s game at New Mexico. The Lobos hadn’t done much to scare anyone with a 7-6 record, but then they thrashed No. 6 UNR 85-58.
That result made clear the Rebels will need to pick up their game.
UNLV coach Marvin Menzies essentially acknowledged as much by noting which teams the Rebels’ two victories came against.
“We didn’t beat Reno and San Diego State in the first two games,” he said. “We’ve got a tough schedule ahead of us. It’s good to get us some momentum going and get some confidence going with the guys. So we’ve got to go on the road, and we’ve got to be tested there again and see how they handle that.”
2. The Rebels need more than Joel Ntambwe.
UNLV’s best hope to beat New Mexico is if players in addition to Ntambwe step up.
He scored a career-high 31 points against Wyoming and was the only Rebel to reach double digits.
Kris Clyburn made 1 of 10 shots.
Amauri Hardy was 1 of 9.
Noah Robotham hit 2 of 9.
Ntambwe shot 64.7 percent, making 11 shots. His teammates were a combined 27.5 percent, also making 11 shots.
It was good enough against a depleted and struggling Wyoming team. Such a result wouldn’t be at New Mexico.
3. Wyoming is, uh, not good.
The Cowboys have two weapons.
Justin James and Hunter Thompson combined to score 32 points.
The rest of the Cowboys? They scored 24 points.
It doesn’t help that two of their better scorers — Hunter Maldonado (13.8-point average) and Jake Hendricks (11.4) — were out with injuries.
This team has lost seven of its past nine games for a reason.
“It was one of those that it felt like if we just did us, we would be OK,” Menzies said. “We didn’t do that the first half (trailing 32-30), but we got to it the second half.”
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Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.
