UNLV powers past Air Force to remain perfect against Mountain West competition

Nearly two months into the season and UNLV men’s basketball finally has its first sustained win streak of the year.

In the program’s first game of the calendar year the Rebels beat the Air Force Falcons, 67-39, Saturday, Jan. 3 from the Thomas & Mack Center. That brings the end to a perfect three-game homestand to improve to 5-2 at home this season.

UNLV’s three game-win streak is the team’s longest of the year.

“I know it wasn’t an easy week being out with the flu bug,” head coach Josh Pastner said. “But we found a way to really execute. I don’t care who you play, you hold a team to under 40 points, that’s not easy to do.”

As a result of the win streak, the Runnin’ Rebels are over .500 for the first time since Nov. 20. The program’s overall record currently sits at 7-6.

With only Mountain West games left, UNLV has no more bye weeks the remainder of the regular season after playing in just four games since Dec. 13.

“I thought we took a good step today,” Pastner said. “Our guys continued to improve. I thought we continued to improve defensively and that’s a big thing for us. We’ve just got to keep getting better every time we step on the floor. We’ve got nine weeks of regular season basketball left because you’ve got 18 regular season games, two games a week. We’ve already used our bye which was that La Sierra game, that was our bye and we played during that time so we’ve got 18 games remaining.”

Up next, the Rebels will head to the road for back-to-back away games beginning Tuesday, Jan. 6 with a date against the Wyoming Cowboys. That game is set to start at 7 p.m.

It will be the program’s first true road game since Dec. 7 with a matchup against Colorado State immediately following.

“We know we have tough road trips next week,” Pastner said. “At Wyoming and at Colorado State so we’ll enjoy the win tonight. Dive into film later after dinner and get back to work tomorrow.”

Freshman forward Tyrin Jones missed all five of his free throws taken in the win and still managed to lead his team in scoring. He reached 10 points on an alley-oop finish to put the home team up 11 points with less than four minutes left in the first half.

Jones began the game a perfect 6-for-6 from the field on his way to 14 points on 7-for-10 shooting with six rebounds and two blocks.

As a team, UNLV scored 20 points in the paint in the first half while holding Air Force to 20 total points in the 20-minute session. By the end of the game, the home team had racked up 40 points in the paint, one more than its opponent’s entire point total.

“I just thought we executed the gameplan,” Pastner said. “They scored 20 points in the first half, 19 in the second. I just thought our execution of the defensive gameplan was at a high level.”

The Falcons went without a field goal for the final 4:37 of the first half. To make matters worse, the Rebels opened the second half on a 10-0 run to go up 25 points.

Air Force didn’t score its first points of the second 20-minute period until the 13:48-mark.

“I thought we really defended at a high level,” Pastner said. “I thought our guys executed the gameplan today that we had set forth for them.”

UNLV ultimately led by as many as 28 points in a game where it held its opponent to 29% shooting from the field. Consequently, the team hauled in 49 rebounds in the win, 17 more than Air Force.

“We had 15 offensive rebounds,” Pastner said. “Which is great thing for us about getting on the glass. We want to get 40% of our missed shots offensive rebounded. We did that today.”

Redshirt sophomore Jacob Bannarbie reached double-digit rebounds for the second straight game and the third time this year overall.

Senior guard Howie Fleming Jr. recorded his second double-double of the season with 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

“Four guys signed the bubble for us,” Pastner said. “Jacob, 10 rebounds. Howie, 12 defensive rebounds. [Freshman guard] Issac Williamson six defensive rebounds, stuck his nose in there [and] came up with tough hard-nose rebounds.

“And [sophomore center Emmanuel Stephen], five offensive and two defensive for seven total.”

Junior guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn entered the game having made nine of his last 14 three-point attempts. He promptly cashed in on his 10th make in the last 15 tries from deep for the first Rebels three of the night.

Gibbs-Lawhorn would have to wait until the second half before hitting his next longball due to picking up three fouls in the first half. In total, UNLV committed 19 fouls as six players tallied at least two, four accumulated at least three and two finished the game with four.

Fighting through the foul trouble, Gibbs-Lawhorn closed the night with 12 points on 50% shooting.

Williamson was the final player in double-figures with 10 points off the bench. He has now scored 10 or more points in five games this season with this being his first since Nov. 25.

“Issac is going to continue getting better,” Pastner said. “I think he’s going to continue to have a trajectory going uphill. Defensively, he’s been pretty good these last couple of games even off-the-ball defense.”