Rebels escape with improbable comeback in OT

Dribbling two steps to his left, Patrick McCaw threw up a floater with his right hand. It was a shot with a high degree of difficulty, and if it missed, UNLV was going to hit its lowest point in almost 20 years.

But this was the Rebels’ lucky day, and all of the breaks went their way.

McCaw’s 12-foot jumper dropped with 1.9 seconds left to force overtime, and UNLV finished off an improbable to rally to defeat Utah State 79-77 on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center.

“It was obviously a pretty tough shot that he hit,” coach Dave Rice said. “Patrick has made big shots all season for us.”

Cody Doolin made two free throws with 2.4 seconds remaining in overtime for the final points in what amounted to a great escape for the Rebels (11-9, 2-5 Mountain West).

None of it would have been possible without the efforts of freshman guard Rashad Vaughn, who scored a career-high 31 points.

“I just had to do it. I didn’t want to lose at all,” said Vaughn, who shot 10-for-24 from the field and 7-for-8 on free throws. “I had to score.”

But in the end, everyone was asking, why did David Collette foul?

With the clock ticking down toward four seconds in a tie game, Jojo McGlaston’s 3-point try from the top was short, and Doolin pulled in the rebound a few feet from the basket. Collette grabbed Doolin from behind for no apparent reason. In 29 years as a head coach, the Aggies’ Stew Morrill has now seen it all.

Doolin sank both free throws — although he said he tried to missed the second attempt that banked in — and Jalen Moore missed a half-court heave at the buzzer as Utah State (11-8, 4-3) took a stunning setback.

Collette, a 6-foot-8-inch freshman forward, scored 24 points on 12-for-16 shooting. He was set up to be the hero and left as the goat.

“He played such a good game. He was beating us up all night,” Doolin said. “You feel a little sorry for him.”

Rice said he felt “great sympathy” for Collette.

“I like David Collette a lot. He’s a quality young man,” Rice said. “When I first got the job at UNLV, we actually recruited him a little bit.”

In Rice’s fourth season, his team was at a low point. The Rebels had dropped six of their previous seven games, their worst stretch since losing seven of eight in 1995-96.

Darius Perkins scored 19 points, and Moore had 12 points and 14 rebounds for the Aggies, who threatened to add to Rice’s misery.

With 1:03 to go in regulation and the shot clock about to expire, Moore pump-faked from 3-point range, drew Chris Wood into the air and got a three-shot foul. He made all three free throws to put Utah State up 64-59.

Vaughn missed a deep 3 with 50 seconds left, and defeat seemed a near certainty when Moore rebounded and was fouled. But he missed the free throw.

Jordan Cornish was fouled on a 3-point try with 43 seconds left and made all three free throws to pull UNLV within 64-62. It was 68-66 after Perkins split two free throws.

The Rebels had eight seconds to get off a shot to win or tie. Doolin dribbled past two defenders and handed the ball off to McCaw, who threw in the tying shot.

After the Aggies scored the first six points of overtime, Vaughn said, “We kept saying, ‘We’ve got time.’ We knew we had a chance to come back.”

McCaw buried a 3 from the corner to tie the score at 75 with 1:24 to go.

“The guys never quit playing,” Rice said. “We had to make every play down the stretch, and we did.”

Vaughn, who made a majority of the key shots, hit 4 of 11 3-pointers and finished with nine rebounds and three steals in 40 exhausting minutes.

“Every basket we needed down the stretch, he came up big for us,” Doolin said. “Rashad just really delivered. It’s arguably his best game yet.”

Vaughn’s 14 points pushed the Rebels to a 37-29 halftime lead, but they came out of the locker room and went into an offensive funk. The Aggies ripped off a 12-2 run to open the second half, grabbing a 41-39 lead on Perkins’ 3-pointer at the 14:20 mark.

UNLV’s comeback got Wood off the hook. The sophomore forward posted a Twitter message Thursday predicting the team would not lose again.

“We’ll do a better job of controlling predictions,” Rice said. “I think that’s Chris’ way of taking accountability and responsibility for the team. He’s probably not Joe Namath.”

Wood had 11 points and seven rebounds to back up his tweet.

“Everyone was surprised he tweeted it,” Vaughn said. “It gave us a lot of confidence. It was a good confidence statement for us as a team, so I’m glad he did that.”

Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyoumans247.