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Back in the day when San Diego State (11-7, 3-3 Mountain West) and UNLV (9-10, 2- 4) met on the court it was a battle of heavyweights. Tuesday night both teams slugged it out on the court for three-quarters of the game, until the Aztecs took control and cruised to a 64-51 victory.
In the first half, the game was a grind. Both teams scraped and clawed for every point on every possession. The young Rebels shot the ball well and limited their turnovers, however they were unable to pull away from San Diego State.
The teams traded the lead and when all was said and done, the Aztecs headed into the locker room with a 34-31 lead.
At the start of the second half both teams went cold. The Rebels went 3 for their first 10 field goal attempts with six turnovers. All the while San Diego State shot 3 for 14 and committed three turnovers of their own. At that point the Aztecs got hot, while the Rebels stayed relatively cold. From there the Aztecs dominated the last 10 minutes of the game en route to the win.
Trey Kell led the Aztecs in scoring with a game-high 24 points. He ended the game scoring 16 of the Aztecs last 20 points. Dakarai Allen had 10 points for San Diego State and Valentine Izundu came up huge on the defensive end with four blocks. On the night the Aztecs shot 41.5% from the field.
Jaylen Poyser led the Rebels with 11 points, while Christian Jones, Jovan Mooring, and Uche Ofoegbu all scored in double figures for UNLV with 10 points each. After shooting 40% in the first half the Rebels were held to 30.8% in the second half, including going 0-3 from beyond the three-point line.
San Diego State will have seven days off until their next game, a road tilt at Air Force on January 24th . UNLV faces the same Falcons at home this Saturday.