Stop-and-go game allows Rebels to pull away from Bulldogs late

It’s a perfect start for head coach Josh Pastner and company after UNLV men’s basketball secured a second straight victory from the Thomas & Mack Center.

In a Saturday matinee, the Runnin’ Rebels beat the Samford Bulldogs, 88-79, in the second straight home game for the program. It won its opener over Northern Arizona Tuesday by 12 points.

“I think this win will go a long way for us because I think they’re really good,” Pastner said. “I think both teams we played this week, Northern Arizona and Samford, are good teams. You can see there’s not that much separation anymore. There’s so much parity amongst college basketball.”

With six days off before the next showing, UNLV can now turn its sights toward Stanford. It will host the Cardinal Friday, Nov. 13 from the Thomas & Mack Center with tip-off slated for 6 p.m.

Last year, the Rebels went on the road and took a one-point win in Palo Alto, California.

“When you press like we press, there’s going to be times you have to relinquish control as a head coach,” Pastner said. “Everyone thinks when you press you can just be chaotic and undisciplined and play with unintelligent energy. It’s the exact opposite.

“When you press like we prss, you have to be even more disciplined. You have to play with more intelligent energy. It’s controlled chaos but with that you’re going to relinquish control.”

That will be the team’s final showing before participating in the highly-anticipated Players Era Tournament from the Michelob Ultra Arena.

The game had an awkward pace to the first half as 27 total fouls were called in the first 20 minutes. UNLV took advantage of the whistle, going 20-for-26 from the free throw line in the first half.

“We won the game because of free throw shooting,” Pastner said. “Free throw shooting was really imperative for us this afternoon, 22-for-32. [Sophomore forward] Tyrin Jones had some big free throws and we shot78% from the free throw line.”

On the other hand, the team battled its fair share of early game foul trouble.

Junior guard Dontrez Williams picked up two fouls in his first three minutes on the floor before accumulating three total in the first half. Teammates Kota Suttle Jr. and Sebastian Mack both had three fouls apiece in the first half as well.

After leading the team in scoring in the season opener, Mack found his rhythm in the second half to conclude his outing with 17 points on 7-of-13 from the field.

Jones added 17 points, five rebounds and six blocks in the win. In the first half, he took a hard fall for the second straight contest. He’d stay down a little longer on this one before heading to the back accompanied by a team trainer.

He’d return to the game just before halftime.

“I’m just trying to learn how to fall,” he said. “Last year, it was scary because anytime I’d fall I’d hold my shoulder because it still was out of place. This year, I’m trying to really learn how to tuck and roll. When I came down I just tucked my shoulders so I made sure that my shoulder is good.”

After having last season was riddled by a shoulder injury, Jones is actively working on his body to be able to withstand the rigors of a full college basketball season.

“This is a contact sport,” Pastner said. “Basketball’s a contact sport, there’s going to be falling on the ground. Our strength and conditioning and performance area, they are doing a great job at getting those guys’ bodies ready to be able to take the falls.

“Obviously, things happen. We’ve been hurt with injuries this year. We got hurt with injuries last year but that’s just part of trying to build.”

Sophomore Cam Miles led the team in scoring with a career-high 20 points with four made threes. After drilling his final longball, the Chicago-native let out some emotions in the form of a scream as he got back on defense.

“I just have to play hard for my team,” he said. “That shot was a big shot and I just showed the passion I had for the game after that, that’s all that was.”

Williams added 10 points despite his foul trouble while freshman forward Jackson Kiss contributed 10 points and six rebounds in the victory. Williams and Kiss were big factors in helping the Rebels haul in 11 offensive rebounds.

“We had 11 offensive rebounds,” Pastner said. “Those ones late by Jackson Kiss and Dontrez Williams were great.”

UNLV won the game in spite of Samford beginning the contest with makes on its first five shot attempts. In fact, the visitors shot 16-of-31 in the first half and had a 53% field goal mark at the 3:47-mark of the second half.

The Bulldogs finished the game with a 48% mark from the field in the loss.

“Samford is a great three-point shooting team,” Pastner said. “Today, they shot 25% from three. They want to take 31 to 35 three-point attempts a game and they – over half of their shots were usually coming from three-point range and we held them to about 33% of their shots were from three. So we adhered to the gameplan.”

In addition, the Rebels racked up just six assists versus 16 for the opponents. Moreover, Samford turned 13 UNLV turnovers into 21 points in the other direction.

“I thought the press was effective and wore them down some,” Pastner said. “I thought there were even a couple of looks they had that were open [and] they never miss them but they were probably a little out of rhythm or maybe they’re not used to seeing that all the time. But we press for 40 minutes.”