UNLV looks woeful late at Colorado State as offense disappears again

UNLV men’s basketball will leave its most recent road trip winless but the team’s offense or lack thereof continues to be the storyline more than the outcome of any particular game.

In only the program’s third true road game in the last month-plus, the Runnin’ Rebels were bested by the Colorado State Rams, 70-62, Friday, Jan. 9 from Moby Arena. That confirms UNLV will leave its two-game road trip without a victory.

“I got on a couple of guys,” head coach Josh Pastner said. “It was a game we had a chance to win. First of all, I’m proud of our young men on the way they bounced back from Tuesday’s game. Because our whole message over the last three days was, ‘Hey, how you’re going to respond is going to show your character.’”

After starting the year 2-0 on the road, now the team sports a .500 record away from the Thomas & Mack Center this season. That doesn’t include the team’s 0-4 mark in neutral site games this campaign.

Moreover, UNLV has lost back-to-back conference games to fall to 2-2 in Mountain West play. Entering Friday, the team was tied with Grand Canyon for the fifth spot in the conference standings.

“These last two days and tonight, I thought we responded the right way,” Pastner said. “We had a great fight and we had a chance to win the game. We missed a short shot there, we missed a rebound or two and had a ball knocked out of our hands.”

Overall, the Rebels are 7-8 on the year which means the team is under .500 for the fourth time this season.

Things don’t get easier for the program as it prepares to host the Boise State Broncos Tuesday, Jan. 13 from the Thomas & Mack Center. Tip-off is slated for 8 p.m.

“I was really proud of our young men on their fight and their bounce back that showed a lot of their character,” Pastner said. “We’ve just got to keep getting better. We’ve got to be better on the glass in both halves.”

UNLV’s offense went with just one make from the field over the last nine minutes and 25 seconds. That stretch included going without a field goal make altogether for more than seven minutes.

In the first half, the Rebels shot just 11-of-26 from the floor, However, an 11-0 run in the thick of things before halftime allowed the team to take a 32-29 lead into the break.

During that opening 20 minutes, Colorado State was held without a point for more than six and a half minutes.

“We start out down 9-0 and I just thought, ‘Oh my goodness,’” Pastner said. “I just subbed five guys and did a hockey line change basically. I thought those guys gave us a great lift, we got up 10-9.”

UNLV got back into the game after an early platoon swap by Pastner after a third team turnover in the first three minutes and 45 seconds of the game. In total, UNLV committed 16 total turnovers as part of the loss.

As a result, the Rebel bench rallied for 19 points in the first half on the way to 31 for the game.

Freshman guard Issac Williamson led all bench scorers with 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting.

Senior guard Al Green added 12 points on 5-of-8 from the floor. By doing so, he scored in double-figures for the first time since returning from the flu and the third time this season.

“Really proud of Al Green,” Pastner said. “Just based on the fact alone that he had the right attitude over the last week or so. I thought there was a stretch where he wasn’t playing well and I wasn’t playing him and part of it was he didn’t have the right mindset.”

Junior guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn was the lone starter in double-figures with 13 points in 35 minutes of action.

Freshman forward Tyrin Jones was held scoreless in the first half but would finish with eight points, three rebounds and a block.

Fouls once again loomed large for UNLV with five players tallying at least four fouls with three of them fouling out including senior Kimani Hamilton and sophomores Emmanuel Stephen and Jacob Bannarbie.

“In the end, we had opportunities,” Pastner said. “We had some possessions, we just missed the layups, we missed wide open shots, we missed at the rim again – we missed a lot of rim shots again just like we did on Tuesday.”