Rebels let marquee chance slip away at No. 12 Arizona

TUCSON, Ariz. — A thigh injury forced 7-foot freshman Stephen Zimmerman Jr. to limp off the floor early in the game, and by all appearances it was going to be a long night for UNLV.

Patrick McCaw, the Rebels' leading scorer, lost his shooting eye. Ben Carter, the team's emotional leader and most physical player, was hurt by foul trouble.

"We're going to fight," Carter said. "This team is a bunch of tough guys."

But in the end, it was another lost night, and the other team was tougher inside. Dusan Ristic scored 20 points and Ryan Anderson added 17 points and 13 rebounds as 12th-ranked Arizona dealt UNLV an 82-70 loss Saturday at the McKale Center.

The Wildcats (11-1) ran a layup drill in the first half and paraded to the free-throw line in both halves while extending the nation's longest home win streak to 46 games.

The Rebels (8-4) fell for the second time in four days to a Pac-12 Conference opponent and let their last big shot at a potential marquee win slip away.

"No one is going to feel sorry for us," UNLV coach Dave Rice said. "We've got a good basketball team. We've got to fight back."

Arizona shot 52 percent from the field and made 29 of 39 free throws. Ristic, a 7-foot center, hit 7 of 8 at the line, and Anderson, a 6-9 forward, made 9 of 11.

"It's hard to make up 19 points at the free-throw line," said Rice, whose team hit 10 of 14 free throws. "I thought we were aggressive taking the ball to the basket, and those were the calls that were made."

But the Rebels were passive on the defensive end in the first half, allowing Ristic and the Wildcats' guards to score at the rim against little resistance. Rice said he opted not to apply full-court pressure until midway through the second half to protect Carter and his thin front line from getting into foul trouble.

When asked about the free-throw disparity, Carter said UNLV was "not aggressive enough" for a majority of the game.

"Arizona was driving to the basket and being physical, and that was something we didn't necessarily do in the first half," Carter said. "We can't complain about the refs. Certain calls didn't go our way, but we can't complain about that.

"We're going to have tough calls that go against us, but we've got to battle adversity."

Ike Nwamu finished with 17 points and Derrick Jones Jr. added 12 for the Rebels. Nwamu connected on 3 of 7 3-pointers while the rest of the team combined to shoot 1 of 11. Carter totaled 10 points and five rebounds before fouling out with 5:38 remaining.

Kadeem Allen and Allonzo Trier, a freshman guard from Findlay Prep, added 15 points apiece for the Wildcats.

"I thought they were the tougher, harder playing team for a point in the second half," Arizona coach Sean Miller said. "But we did well to fight them off."

The Wildcats ran out to an 11-point lead early in the second half, but the Rebels closed the gap to 54-51 on Jones' 3-pointer with 12:10 to go.

UNLV went more than five minutes without a field goal and fell behind 64-52 before Carter's layup stopped the drought with 6:24 remaining.

The Rebels played mostly without Zimmerman, who did not start and exited early with a left thigh contusion.

"He apparently aggravated it in the first half and couldn't return," Rice said, explaining that Zimmerman took a knee to the thigh in Thursday's practice. "He didn't start because he didn't participate fully in practice the day before the game."

Zimmerman checked in at the 18:12 mark and produced a blocked shot and fast-break dunk in his first 14 seconds. He was sprinting swiftly, and his 17-foot jumper put UNLV up 21-17 midway through the first half. But he soon limped to the bench after clocking only nine minutes and scoring six points.

In a rare show of emotion, Rice lost his composure in front of the bench. He shouted at official David Hall and was hit with a technical — only his second in five years as UNLV coach — after Allen scored on a layup and was fouled by Dwayne Morgan.

A four-point possession put Arizona ahead 32-28, and Trier followed by sinking a 3.

"I'm always going to fight for my team," Rice said.

Despite shooting 51.6 percent, the Rebels trailed 44-36 at the half. The Wildcats hit 12 of 17 free throws and had a 10-point advantage at the line.

Arizona had several opportunities to put UNLV away, yet the Rebels made a late run to cut their deficit to 69-63 on Jones' three-point play with 3:21 left. McCaw's fast-break layup narrowed the gap to four.

But McCaw threw away an inbounds pass, and Gabe York turned it into a breakaway and a three-point play.

"That turnover really killed us," Carter said.

McCaw's errant shooting — 3 of 14, including 0 of 5 from 3-point range — also hurt. To cap his night, he missed a wide-open layup just before the final buzzer.

"Patrick is as important as any guy on this team," Rice said. "We're not as good when he's not putting the ball in the basket."

UNLV closes its nonconference schedule Tuesday by hosting South Dakota, and then a Mountain West season filled with unranked opponents awaits.

"I'm not worried," Carter said. "This is a long season."

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