UNLV picks up second straight win with first Mountain West win away from home

Members of the UNLV men’s basketball program were confident this most recent two-game road trip would look different from its last winless journey. Halfway through this road trip, it already does.

Coming off an overtime win at home against the Boise State Broncos, the Runnin’ Rebels made it two straight with a, 76-62, win over the San Jose State Spartans Saturday, Jan. 17 from the Provident Credit Union Event Center.

“It’s more than basketball here,” senior guard Howie Fleming Jr. said. “We’re like a family. That’s the type of culture we’ve built here at UNLV.”

Saturday marked the first road win in Mountain West play for the program after opening that portion of the schedule 0-2 away from the Thomas & Mack Center. As a result, the team is now 9-8 on the year overall.

Additionally, UNLV is 4-2 in conference play this season which is good for a tie with Grand Canyon for fifth in the Mountain West standings. As it presently stands, the program is a game and a half back of second place which is currently held by No. 23 Utah State.

The brief two-game road trip ends Tuesday, Jan. 20 from Dee Glen Smith Spectrum against the aforementioned Utah State Aggies. Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m.

Pastner has been ensuring despite the numbers that his team is not as bad of a shooting group as the percentages would suggest. Without those numbers in mind, his Rebel squad looked every bit of a top-tier shooting group through the first half of its last win.

Freshman guard Issac Williamson knocked down back-to-back three-pointers soon after tip-off to set up the big shooting half for UNLV.

By the second media timeout, the Rebels were up to four made threes on the way to shooting 7-of-15 from three-point range in the first half. That early shooting barrage was met with a 6-0 run by San Jose State to cut the lead to just a point.

That 6-0 run by the home team was countered by a 7-0 response by UNLV. That 7-0 run would balloon to 16-6 by the next media timeout. In total, the team closed the first half on a 21-10 run.

In the first 20-minute session, the Rebels shot 14-for-24 from the field. The team’s shooting numbers allowed the club to take a nine-point lead into halftime despite four turnovers in just over four minutes late in the first half.

UNLV went up by 16 points early in the second half before the lead would dwindle again on the heels of an 18-5 San Jose State run. During that time, the home team made just one field goal between the 14:30-mark and 9:48-mark of the second half.

That kind of spurt was made possible by the fouling of the Rebels, a team that tallied 17 fouls in the loss to just 14 by the home team.

The team had eight fouls just over halfway through the first half including three fouls to the aforementioned Williamson and two fouls apiece for Rebel big men Emmanuel Stephen and Jacob Bannarbie.

Junior guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn ended the night with a team-high four fouls despite adding 10 points during his outing.

Fleming Jr. came up big time and time again for his UNLV team including a big three-pointer in the second half to push the sinking lead back to 12 points.

Fleming posted 21 points and eight assists in the win.

“It’s a young core,” he said. “Me being able to do the things I do comes from the guys in the locker room installing that confidence in me. Allowing me to be a leader and just me trying to go out there and do the right thing so I can lead by example.”

Freshman forward Tyrin Jones added 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Senior forward Kimani Hamilton was the final Rebel player in double-figures with 11 points in 39 minutes on the court.