Utah State gets revenge on UNLV as Rebels bounced from Mountain West Championships

Another appearance in the Mountain West Championships resembled a trial run as the UNLV men’s basketball program drought without reaching its conference tournament’s semifinals has reached 12 straight years.

Facing the top seed in the tourney as the eight seed, UNLV was pummeled by Utah State, 80-60, Thursday, March 12 from the Thomas & Mack Center. During the regular season, the Rebels swept the Aggies including a 27-point win in this same building nine days ago.

“It was not a good game offensively,” head coach Josh Pastner said. “we've been a team that one of our issues this year has been on the defensive end, not on the offensive end. We've been scoring at such a high rate.”

Before Thursday, UNLV had won four of its last six outings but now its season will end with a 17-16 overall record. On the other hand, Utah State will advance to take on either No. 4 Grand Canyon or No. 5 Nevada – Reno.

“I'm proud of our guys,” Pastner said. “They have given me, us, the program everything that they've had and have laid it all on the floor. Utah State was ready to go. We had obviously beat them twice. The only team to beat them at their spot, in a convincing fashion, whatever it was, 91-60-something the last time we played them here at home about a week ago.”

It appeared from the early going, part of Utah State’s approach was to agitate UNLV. Not only did it work, in spurts it looked like the Rebels were taken out of its gameplan.

Senior forward Kimani Hamilton was a focal point of the agitation. So much so he picked up a flagrant-1 foul in the second half. Not long after, he was at the heart of a kerfuffle that saw himself and teammate Howie Fleming Jr. surrounded by Aggies players and coaches.

“People paint [trash-talking] on us,” junior guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn said. “Everyone talks smack in basketball. Most of the time other teams start it first. Maybe the way we do it, I don't know if people want to be like, Oh, they're the bad guys. I don't know, but I love my brothers.

“I wouldn't want to go to war with nobody else this year.”

Hamilton was assessed a technical foul as part of double technicals. In the end, he would foul out with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting.

In total, Utah State’s pressure and persistence forced UNLV into 19 turnovers that turned into 23 points on the other end.

“That they thrive off of live ball turnovers,” Pastner said. “I call them pick-sixes and/or bad shots. We had too many of both.”

The Aggies closed the first half on a 14-2 run while taking a 14-point lead into halftime. Before the final horn, the team went up by as many as 23 points.

Gibbs-Lawhorn committed a third turnover early in the second half while having just two points recorded. Between the second half of the program’s first round game against Wyoming and the first half on Thursday, he accounted for two points on 1-of-13 shooting.

“I just missed shots,” he said. “I forced shots, shots I probably shouldn't have took. But for me it was just, I feel like I kind of defeated myself with my performance.”

Gibbs-Lawhorn settled in to finish with a team-high 17 points on 6-of-17 from the field. Teammate Walter Brown was the final Rebel player in double-figures with 11 points.

“It's been a blessing to be on this,” the former said. “The season I had, the words got all out the window. Just to be able to play with my brothers and play with the staff, Coach Pastner – Just to be able to play basketball in general at this level has been a real blessing from God for me, so I'm forever thankful for it.”

Utah State leader Mason Falslev had a fiery first half with 17 points on 7-of-8 from the floor in just over 17 minutes of action. He’d finish with a game-high 24 points to go along with nine rebounds.

Both Gibbs-Lawhorn and Falslev were whistled for double technicals late in regulation in a game that featured 43 total fouls including four technicals and a flagrant foul.

“I wasn't frustrated at all,” Gibbs-Lawhorn said. “He got up and bumped into me. So I don't know what he had to be frustrated about, to be honest.”

Fleming Jr. added, “It's easy to do all that when you're winning in the moment.”