UNLV blows late lead in loss to Boise State
UNLV has had several chances to win games on the road in the Mountain West.
But it hasn’t converted on any of them, and Saturday’s 61-59 loss to Boise State at ExtraMile Arena in Boise, Idaho, might be the most gut-wrenching example yet.
With the Rebels trailing by one with 11 seconds left, Bryce Hamilton stole a Boise State inbound pass and passed to Caleb Grill on the right wing. Grill drove to the basket, but Devonaire Doutrive contested his off-balance shot, which sailed well wide of the mark, and UNLV fell to 0-6 on the road in conference.
“They’re in a scramble situation, so you don’t want to allow them to get set,” UNLV coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “Bryce has the ball in his hands, and I trust in him to make the play. I like that Caleb attacked that closeout. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to convert.”
Derrick Alston was 6-for-8 from 3-point range and scored 27 points for Boise State (16-4, 12-3), which improved to 9-0 in conference home games. Mladen Armus had eight points and 13 rebounds for the Broncos.
David Jenkins scored 19 points to lead UNLV, Hamilton added 13 points and seven rebounds and Grill 11 points. Devin Tillis led the Rebels (8-11, 5-7) with eight rebounds.
1. Shrinking the floor
After Boise State had six players with eight points or more in a 78-66 win in Thursday’s opener, the Rebels tried to make it more difficult to get everyone involved.
Alston was 8-for-16 and Doutrive 4-for-6 from the floor for nine points, but the rest of the Broncos shot 9-for-34 (26.4 percent).
“The plan was to shrink the floor,” Otzelberger said. “We did want to limit their assists. We did want to collapse the paint early and make them kick out and play one-on-one. I thought we were able to do that.”
2. Boise State wins from line
Boise State made its comeback mostly from the free-throw line. After Alston’s 3-pointer with 6:08 left, the Broncos had only two field goals.
But they were 12-for-14 from the free-throw line in the final 5:21 after shooting only three free throws before that. UNLV was 1-for-3 over the same time frame, including Mbacke Diong missing the front end of a one-and-one with the Rebels leading by two with 2:20 to go.
“We talked about our guys a lot about physicality,” Otzelberger said. “We want to get to the line, get to the paint. We talked in the final full timeout about running physical offense. Unfortunately, we had a couple possessions where that didn’t happen. Those possessions and the free throws hurt us.”
3. Playing to opponent’s level
UNLV has challenged some of the top teams in the league, with a win over first-place Utah State and two three-point losses to third-place Colorado State.
The Rebels swept Air Force and New Mexico, the two teams at the bottom of the league, but had to hold on late in three of those four games.
Contact Jason Orts at jorts@reviewjournal.com. Follow @SportsWithOrts on Twitter.
