UNLV collapses late in 2nd straight loss at UNR

After being blown out by 29 points Sunday at UNR, UNLV had a chance to win the finale of the two-game series Tuesday.

The Rebels led by five after a Nick Blake 3-pointer with 5:44 to go, but it was all Wolf Pack after that. UNR finished the game on a 19-4 run to sweep the series with a 72-62 win, its eighth straight in the intrastate rivalry, at Lawlor Events Center in Reno.

“In a rivalry game, you’ve got to play through adversity,” UNLV coach T.J. Otzelberger said. “We didn’t do a great job of playing through adversity. When they scored, they scored in waves. You have to have a stubbornness and grit to say, ‘We’re getting a stop here.’ We weren’t able to do that.”

The Rebels will meet Air Force in a two-game series at 1 p.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Monday at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Zane Meeks had 19 points and eight rebounds off the bench, and his seven straight points over a 1:18 span during the final spurt put UNR (12-7, 7-5 Mountain West) ahead for good.

Moses Wood led UNLV (6-9, 3-5) with 16 points, Caleb Grill scored 14 and Blake 11. The Rebels again played without leading scorer Bryce Hamilton, who has an ankle injury.

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

1. Lack of depth hurts late

UNR hit the Rebels with a 13-2 run to start the second half, but UNLV recovered with 7-0 and 5-0 runs around stretches in which the teams traded baskets to grab a 59-54 lead at the 5:44 mark.

UNLV made one of its final eight shots as the Wolf Pack pulled away.

“I didn’t see (fatigue), and as a coach, you’re always playing guys you think give you the best chance to win,” Otzelberger said. “Unfortunately, depth isn’t a strength of ours, so I thought the guys on the court were doing the best job of fighting and competing.”

Devin Tillis played 28 minutes off the bench, but no other reserve played more than 10. UNLV was outscored 28-6 in bench points.

2. Jenkins sits in second half

One UNLV starter who didn’t get much time in the second half was David Jenkins. The junior, who has been the Rebels’ leading scorer with Hamilton out, logged about six minutes after halftime. His final basket came on a 3-pointer 29 seconds into the second half.

“David, as a fourth-year college player, needs to be a guy who helps us get our defense set up and help anchor it, help communicate, really care that we get stops,” Otzelberger said. “I thought there was some slippage there. When we went with other guys, it felt like we had good momentum.”

3. Tale of two halves on defense

After the Rebels allowed UNR to shoot 56.4 percent from the field and 58.3 percent from 3-point range in an 89-60 loss Sunday, they were a different team in the first half Tuesday.

UNR shot 26.7 percent from the field and 18.8 percent on 3-pointers before halftime, but the UNLV defense looked more like the one Sunday in the second half when the Wolf Pack made 62.5 percent of their shots.

“We practiced hard last night,” Otzelberger said. “We spent a lot of time teaching sprinting back on defense, talking and having a great presentation. Our guys for the first 20 minutes had a masterpiece that way. For the second half, they decided not to do those things.”

Contact Jason Orts at jorts@reviewjournal.com. Follow @SportsWithOrts on Twitter.