Quinn, San Diego State eliminate UNLV
At the end of UNLV’s season, there was someone to blame. It was Aqeel Quinn, who hit a flurry of big shots with the game on the line.
On a Thursday night high on energy and emotion, Quinn kept San Diego State alive in the Mountain West tournament.
“It’s a wave of emotions,” he said. “At one moment you’re up, and the next you’re kind of biting your fingernails. It’s very fun. It’s competitive. I just love when it’s a game like that.”
Quinn scored 15 of his 21 points in the second half as the second-seeded Aztecs rallied to defeat the seventh-seeded Rebels 67-64 in a back-and-forth quarterfinal at the Thomas & Mack Center.
San Diego State (25-7) advanced to face Colorado State (27-5) in the semifinals at 8:30 p.m. today.
Sophomore forward Chris Wood, who finished with 21 points and eight rebounds, showed emotions of a different kind as time expired on UNLV. With the NBA Draft as an option, he was asked if it was his last college game.
“I don’t know. We’ll see,” he said.
“I definitely thought we should have had a better season, but I’m proud of everybody and proud of how we played. I’m happy everybody stuck together through the tough times.”
The Rebels (18-15) will meet today to decide if their season will continue. A spot in the National Invitation Tournament is unlikely, but officials from the College Basketball Invitational have been in contact with UNLV, according to coach Dave Rice.
“That is certainly an opportunity for us,” Rice said. “Our guys seem excited to continue to play, and they don’t want to finish the season this way.”
Finishing has been the Rebels’ problem all season. All three of their losses to the Aztecs went to the wire, and this one stung the most.
“It was right there for us,” said Wood, who shot 10-for-20 from the field and scored 15 of his points in the second half.
San Diego State, trailing by six points at halftime, opened the second half with a 12-0 run and went ahead 35-29 on Quinn’s steal and layup with 16:06 remaining.
Wood stopped the run with a short jumper, and his 3-pointer pulled UNLV within 42-41 with 10 minutes to go.
After Wood’s baseline jumper tied the score at 46, Quinn, who made 5 of 6 3-pointers, struck back with a 3. He hit another at the five-minute mark, and the Aztecs surged ahead 58-51 on his jumper with 3:07 left.
UNLV closed to within 61-59 on senior guard Cody Doolin’s two free throws with 35 seconds remaining.
It was 62-59 after Dwayne Polee II made the first free throw and missed the second attempt. Winston Shepard, who totaled 12 points and 10 rebounds, worked his way inside to grab two offensive rebounds and score on a putback to spell the end for the Rebels.
“It was two teams that desperately wanted to win, and we found a way to win,” San Diego State coach Steve Fisher said. “UNLV has got as talented a group of young players that there is in the country. They know they’re going to win. We felt that the whole game.
“That’s why we’ve had the kinds of game we’ve had with them. If they didn’t believe they could win, when we get that 12-0 run, we would have run away with it. But they bowed their back and came right back at us.”
JJ O’Brien had 15 points for the Aztecs, who shot 57.7 percent in the second half to overcome a slow start.
Senior guard Jelan Kendrick totaled 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Rebels, who led for 21½ of the 40 minutes but again could not finish.
“We battled from the start of the game to the end of the game,” Rice said. “We had a lot of close games this year and we never quit.”
But in the end, it was a familiar story as San Diego State’s pressure defense, relentless rebounding by Shepard and timely shooting by Quinn prevailed with a tight game on the line.
“I was just in the right spot at the right time,” Shepard said. “We live to fight another day.”
Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyoumans247.
