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Coming off a blown opportunity to add a potential resume-building win this past weekend, the UNLV men’s basketball team is back into the win column.
UNLV downed Omaha, 80-69, Thursday, Nov. 14 from the Thomas & Mack Center. Three seasons ago, the Runnin’ Rebels beat the Mavericks by 13.
“I’m extremely happy with the result,” head coach Kevin Kruger said. “As we explained to the guys, every game that we play in this non-conference has a purpose — has a reason […] Omaha brought a little bit of another unique challenge for us today.”
That makes it two wins through the first three games of the season for UNLV. The program’s five-game homestand will continue Wednesday, Nov. 20 with a date with Pepperdine from the Thomas & Mack Center.
Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. That will be just the third Rebel basketball game in 12 days.
“A lot of really good things in these first three games that we can get on film and talk to the guys about to get better for next Wednesday,” Kruger said. “
UNLV slid early in the game and found itself down, 9-2, to its Summit League Conference opponent. Kruger would take a timeout, down 15-7 with just over 14 minutes left in the first half, after six straight makes from the Mavericks.
Kruger’s team would respond out of the gate with a 6-0 run out of the timeout. Not long after, the Rebels would snag their first lead of the game behind a 9-0 run. The team would go on another short spurt, this time 7-0, just before halftime.
“We’ve just got to be more consistent,” Kruger said. “We’ve just got to have longer stretches of more consistent play. But it’s not a lack of effort.”
In the first half, UNLV forced its opponent into 12 turnovers on the way to 19 for the game. As a result, the home team raced out to 30 points off turnovers including 17 fast break points versus just seven and eight points respectively on the other side.
When it needed to be, the defense was stout. At one point of the second half, Omaha had been held scoreless for more than three minutes. Late in regulation it would happen again, this time the Mavericks would go without a point for more than five minutes.
That drought came at the perfect time as UNLV went on an 11-1 run after the game was tied at 63 apiece. Earlier in the second period, the Rebels had built a lead as large as 13 points.
“We’ve got to rely on our defense,” Kruger said. “We do. We’ve got to get better on that side of the ball so that when we do have nights where we’re 4-for-18 and don’t shoot 24-for-25 from the line.”
Junior forward Bear Cherry had another dominant outing with 17 points on a near perfect 7-for-8 from the field. He is now shooting 21-of-23 through the first three games of his Division-I basketball career.
”For all the math people out there, that puts him [at] 21-for-23 on the season,” Kruger said. “So that’s pretty good. That’s pretty good. That’s about as good a start [to] a three-game stretch I guess anyone could ask.”
Cherry’s lone miss of the night was cleaned up by a tip-in from teammate Jalen Hill to beat the first half buzzer. Hill joined Cherry with a shared team-high of 17 points.
The sixth-year senior has racked up 31 points over the last two games.
”He’s a really good basketball player,” Kruger said. “It’s just what he is […] For his season to get cut short last year, of course, was really disappointing. But you know that his patience and his determination to get back, get healthy to kind of finish his career here was unmatched.”
Sophomore guard Dedan Thomas Jr. added 15 points of his own while fellow starting guard Jaden Henley chipped in with 10 more. The duo of Thomas and Henley combined to go 12-for-12 from the free throw line as part of a 24-for-25 effort by the Rebels as a whole.
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