Equal parts bad defense, bad offense for UNLV in its second straight loss

From the fresh highs of an undefeated conference road trip to the backpedaling 0-2 homestand for UNLV men’s basketball.

Make it two straight losses for the Runnin’ Rebels after their second three-game win streak of the season for the program. It was blown out, 89-61, by the New Mexico Lobos Tuesday, Jan. 27 from the Thomas & Mack Center. That brought the end to a winless two-game homestand for the club that began with an 11-point loss to the San Diego State Aztecs.

“We got our butts kicked,” head coach Josh Pastner said. “Bottom line, we got our butts kicked. 0-2 in this homestand, just unacceptable.”

That marks the fifth double-digit loss of the season for UNLV including three of 28 points or more. Of those three larger losses, the team has been beaten by 32 points and 39 points on its resume.

Moreover, the team has a 19.8 average margin of loss in conference play.

The back-to-back losses pushed the Rebels back to .500 on the year with a 10-10 record now. Additionally, the team is 1-2 against the top three teams in the Mountain West as it sports a 5-4 conference record which is good for the sixth spot in the standings.

“It starts with me,” Pastner said. “I’m the head coach, you can’t hide or run from it. We’ve got to be better.”

Right back to the grind for the program as UNLV will begin another two-game road trip with visits to Nevada – Reno and Fresno State. It all begins with a Friday, Jan. 30 matchup with the aforementioned UNR Wolf Pack with tip-off slated for 7 p.m.

“We’ve got a quick turnaround,” Pastner said. “Seventy-two hours and we’ll play at Nevada on Friday night at 7. I told our guys, ‘Your toughness will be tested to see how you respond on Friday night. Not only those four letters on the front of your jersey, UNLV, but also taking pride in who you are with your name on the back of the jersey as well.” 

Just 94 seconds into the game, Pastner called his first timeout of the game, ahead of a flatlined effort on both offense and defense by his group.

New Mexico missed its first shot of the night and then went on to connect on seven of its next eight shots. In the first half, the visitors shot 15-for-29 from the floor.

It took nearly 10 minutes before the first Lobos’ field goal outside of the paint with their first 16 points coming from the painted area. Even with misses on their first four free throw attempts of the night, the away team was able to keep control of the game.

Looking for a defensive answer in any way, Pastner pulled out a full-court trap that dropped into a 2-3 zone early in the first half. Just before halftime, he’d have his team try its hand at the 3-2 zone.

UNLV trailed the entire game in the eventual loss where it trailed by as many as 38 points.

“We were terrible,” Pastner said. “They had a hit-first mentality, we had a soft-first mentality.”

On the other hand, the Rebels’ first half featured more turnovers than made field goals. At one point, the team went 1-for-10 during a stretch only to follow it up with four straight turnovers.

Ultimately, UNLV went 1-for-12 as part of that spurt while going without a point for more than four minutes and 40 seconds.

“I thought we were selfish in the first half,” Pastner said. “The ball was not moving, it was sticking. We were just bad. Bad from top-to-bottom, it starts with me.”

At the first media timeout in the second half, the home team had shot just 10-of-33 from the floor while misfiring on its first eight three-point attempts of the night.

At the 12:00-mark the team cashed in on its first longball of the night to the delight of the home crowd.

All the while, New Mexico kept up its hot shooting with another 9-for-10 stretch late in regulation. In total, the visitors shot 33-for-65 from the field while UNLV was held to 22-of-59 shooting.

“In the non-conference, we were one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the country,” Pastner said. “In conference, we’ve been shooting the ball really well. But the reality of it is when you have [forwards Tyrin Jones and Kimani Hamilton] on the floor the spacing gets congested.”

No Rebel player scored in double-figures as guards Issac Williamson and Naas Cunningham both scored nine points apiece off the bench.

Jones played just over a minute in the game after leaving the contest due to an injury to his left shoulder. Prior to the start of the season, he dealt with a serious injury to the same shoulder.

“First play of the game Tyrin hurt his shoulder,” Pastner said. “The very first play of the game we ran a play to get him at the post. For whatever happened, he said he heard a pop in the same shoulder he had separated.”

UNLV was down two additional players with Hamilton and junior guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn fouling out.

Hamilton played just 19 minutes of two-point basketball while shooting 0-for-4 from the field. He also tallied five rebounds, two assists and a block during his outing.

Gibbs-Lawhorn was held to just eight points on 3-of-11 shooting after entering the game as the team’s leading scorer.

“We need Dra to score,” Pastner said. “We need him to score but he’s also our only point guard. It’s not a natural position for him but he’s gotten better at it.

“This is a guard’s game and we rely heavily on Dra, just the facts are the facts. We need him to be at a high level and the last two games he hasn’t been at a high level.”