UNLV goes cold in loss
The UNLV Runnin' Rebels were on the verge of delivering the knockout blow to visiting Arizona State whenever an old habit crept up and bit the home team at an unfortunate time.
ASU never received the fatal blow. Instead, the Sun Devils began slowly chipping away at the Rebels' 14 point lead while UNLV's offense flatlined.
UNLV never recovered from its lull and Arizona State went on to pull off a stunning, 66-56, win at the Thomas & Mack Center, despite playing without its top scorer and rebounder, former Rebel Savon Goodman.
The Rebels were able to overcome some horrific officiating in the first half due to a hot start from the field. UNLV shot 58% in the first half and 50% from beyond the 3-point arc.
In the second half, UNLV started similar to the end of the first. Ike Nwamu scored six points and Dwayne Morgan chipped in a layup in the first three minutes before the Rebels went ice cold.
It was nearly seven minutes after Nwamu's triple that Jordan Cornish connected on the Rebels' next bucket to push the UNLV lead back to six points.
But you could feel that UNLV's problems weren't going to magically go away. Stephen Zimmerman made a jumper with just under 10 minutes to go before another extended drought occurred. This time the Rebels went nearly five minutes before their next points, and by the time Ben Carter made a free throw, UNLV was trailing by four.
Down the stretch the Rebels didn't have any solutions, either. A rushed trey with a defender in his face came from Derrick Jones Jr. Then, trailing by four Jerome Seagears rushed a 3-pointer from the top of the key that was as forced a shot as any in the entire game.
Arizona State seemed to feel the victory at that point. The Sun Devils continued to push the ball down the floor and convert on easy buckets.
Those final few minutes told the story of the game. ASU was playing to win rather than not to lose, while UNLV looked panicked and jacked up ill-advised shots that didn't come in the flow of the offense.
This can only be used as a teaching point for a Rebel squad that is looking to turn the corner from underachiever to reaching their potential.
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