UNLV falls at home again
After turning in one of its best performances of the season in a blowout of BYU on Saturday, the Rebels gave the win right back with a 76-66 home loss to New Mexico on Wednesday night.
They won’t have to look very far for the reason why.
New Mexico out-rebounded UNLV by a staggering 45-23 margin. That is a shocking discrepancy.
That total included 17 offensive rebounds that the Lobos turned into 19 points. UNLV got just two second-chance points off of eight offensive boards.
Darington Hobson, born and raised in Las Vegas and playing in front of a contingent of friends and family, had 16 points and 13 rebounds to lead New Mexico.
The biggest of those stats came after UNLV had trimmed an 18-point Lobo lead to just two with 3:38 to play.
Hobson missed a layup along the baseline but fought through three Rebels to corral the rebound, which he tossed back up off the glass for a pivotal basket.
A.J. Hardeman repeated the feat two minutes later, tipping in a Dairese Gary miss to put New Mexico ahead by six after a Matt Shaw 3-pointer. The Rebels didn’t score again.
Oscar Bellfield led UNLV with 15 points, but Tre’Von Willis was held to just 13 on 4 of 13 shoting. Shaw had 12 points.
Willis did have 10 assists and four rebounds in the game.
Roman Martinez also scored 16 for New Mexico, which went 11-for-21 from 3-point range. Dairese Gary had 15 points and Phillip McDonald added 13.
Protecting the ball
UNLV certainly can’t blame the loss on turnovers.
The Rebels committed just six turnovers in the entire game, while dishing out 19 assists as a team.
Tre’Von Willis had half of the turnovers, but he also racked up a very impressive 10 assists by himself.
New Mexico had just 14 assists, while coughing it up 12 times.
That’s a stat that can easily be overcome when you rebound so well.
Dominance
New Mexico never trailed in the game after jumping out to a quick 6-0 start on a pair of 3-pointers.
UNLV was never even able to draw even, though it did get within two points late in the contest.
The Lobos led by as many as 18 in the second half.
Lead built back in less than a day
Roman Martinez hit back-to-back 3-pointers with 15 minutes remaining to extend New Mexico’s lead back to 54-38 after a UNLV run early in the second half had gotten it down to 10.
The Lobos eventually got the lead up to 18 points before the Rebels made another run.
And 1
Oscar Bellfield converted a 4-point play midway through the second half to get the Rebels back within double digits for the first time in the second half.
The rare occurrence made the score 61-52.
The sophomore guard was fouled making a 3-point shot with 9:48 remaining and knocked down the free throw after the media timeout to make it a 9-0 UNLV run.
Darington Hobson made an acrobatic runner in the lane the next time down the floor to end the Lobo drought.
