UNLV Stays Hot, Beating Their In-State Rival

The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels came off their big win against Colorado State last Friday to play at home against the struggling Nevada Wolfpack. It was the Rebels first game back at the Thomas and Mack Center in over a week and they did not disappoint their home crowd.

The Rebels have not beat the Wolfpack, at home or on the road, since February 7th, 2018.

The game started close with the Rebels and the Pack only within a few points of each other. Donovan Williams hit a three to have the Rebels pull ahead 7-4, five minutes into the first half. After this UNLV started pulling away. UNLV went on an 10-2 run with a little more than ten minutes left in the half.

With five minutes left in the half UNLV was 5-16 from the three point line and Nevada was a disappointing 0-4. The Rebels were up 24-14 at this point before Pack guard, Desmond Cambridge, hit their first shot from behind the arc of the night, giving the Rebels only a seven point lead.

With 90 seconds remaining in the half Rebel guard, Bryce Hamilton hit a big three to put his team up by 13.

After the Rebels went on a 12-0 run, which was sparked by the Hamilton three, the clock was ticking down in the half, with only a few seconds left. Nevada’s Kenan Blackshear took a shot from deep and drilled it has the half came to a close.

The halftime score was 42-26, Runnin’ Rebels lead.

Nevada hung around at the start of the second half as the start of this half mirrored the start of the first with both teams starting off slow and having three whole minutes of no buckets made. This was until Mike Nuga for the Rebels hit an off balance three point shot, right as the shot clock buzzer rang, to spark the Rebels into having more control of this game.

However, the spark that UNLV had died out as the Pack started to make their comeback. With 11:18 to play in the game, the Rebels had their smallest lead since the start of the first half after Cambridge hit a mid-range jumper to out the Pack within five of the Rebels.

The Rebels started to run away with the game again shortly after as they started to repeat what they did against Colorado State, shoot from behind the arc. Williams hit another triple to put UNLV up nine with just under nine minutes to play.

The Rebels never let the Pack get back within nine with Hamilton hitting a fadeaway jumper to give the Rebels an 11 point lead with 90 seconds to play in the game.

The game ended with this 11 point lead, The Rebels knocking off the Pack 69-58.

Nevada struggled with turnovers throughout the game which was part of the reason they could never take the lead in the game. Nevada was also without their star point guard, Grant Sherfield.

UNLV took care of business by having a good team win. Nobody on the team had more than 20 points, but they had four players get into double digit points. Bryce Hamilton and Donovan Williams had 17, Jordan McCabe had 16, and Mike Nuga had 10 points.

UNLV takes on The Utah State Aggies, who blew out Nevada in Reno, at the Smith Spectrum Arena in Logan, Utah on Saturday, February 5th at 3:00pm PST.