Utah State dismisses UNLV Aggies start hot in second half, oust Rebels from tournament
Seventh-seeded UNLV gave second-seeded Utah State everything it could handle for 20 minutes in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West basketball tournament Thursday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.
But the second half was a completely different story, as the Aggies turned a tied game at halftime into a 74-53 win that ended the Rebels’ season.
Utah State (19-7) will play Colorado State (18-5) at 9 p.m. Friday in the semifinals. San Diego State (22-4) will meet UNR (17-9) at 6:30 in the other semifinal. The championship game is at 3 p.m. Saturday.
The Aggies got there by coming out of the locker room on fire after a sluggish first half that saw UNLV (1215) lead by as many as six points. Utah State made its first six shots in the second half and nine of 11.
“We talked about needing to get stops in that first two minutes after the half, and they converted on nine out of (11) out of the locker room to put us in a deficit we were chasing the whole second half,” UNLV coach T.J. Otzelberger said.
Neemias Queta made 10 of 12 from the free-throw line and finished with 18 points and 13 rebounds for Utah State, which outrebounded UNLV 25-12 in the second half. Defensive specialist Marco Anthony had 15 points, 13 rebounds and five assists.
Here are three takeaways from the loss:
While the second half was a disaster, the game started to get away from UNLV near the end of the first half.
The Rebels held the Aggies without a point for a stretch of 6:02 but led by only six points. Utah State closed on a 6-0 run for a 24-24 halftime tie.
“I know we had a little bit of separation and would have liked to go in the locker room with a lead,” Otzelberger said. “Again, on the defensive end, we did a good job the majority of the first half, but right at the end, we could have been a little better.”
The run carried over into the second half and became a 23-9 stretch from which UNLV never recovered.
A day after the Rebels got just about everything they wanted offensively against Air Force, they were locked down by the Aggies.
Bryce Hamilton and David Jenkins Jr. combined to shoot 8 of 32. Jenkins finished 1 of 13 and missed all seven 3-point attempts to finish with five points.
Hamilton was all over the floor on both ends in the first half but had to work for every shot against Anthony.
Hamilton scored eight points in each half, but his impact faded as the game progressed.
“Fatigue probably played a part,” Hamilton said. “We played great defense in the first half; we just have to carry it on in the second half.”
The Rebels shot 6 of 22 on 3-pointers and made 32 percent from the field overall.
Mbacke Diong was mostly taken out of the game by Queta. UNLV’S only senior had four points and four fouls before leaving with an injury in the closing minutes. Otzelberger said he didn’t think the injury was serious.
Playing the conference tournament on its home floor hasn’t translated to much success for UNLV in recent years.
The last time the Rebels made the semifinals was 2014, when they lost to San Diego State.
They last played in the finals in 2013 and last won the tournament in 2008.