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Bolstered by the first appearance of the season by fifth-year forward Keylan Boone, UNLV picked up a big resume-building win as it took down a Top-10 team.
Thirty-five combined points from the Boone brothers helped the Runnin’ Rebels dethrone the No. 8 Creighton Bluejays, 79-64, from the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nevada as part of the Jack Jones Classic. After picking up two Top-25 wins last season, UNLV now has its first Top-10 win since 2020 as it handed Creighton its second loss of the year.
“I thought the buy-in was clear and obvious from the moment we met getting ready for Creighton,” head coach Kevin Kruger said. “It was a clear understanding that the effort had to be where it was at tonight to give ourselves a chance to win a game.
“And without a doubt, it was there”
In addition, the win goes down as the program’s first win on a neutral court this season as it played its second straight game from the DLC. Coming in, the team had lost three of its last four games.
The Rebels are now 4-4 on the year with a couple of days to prepare for the Saint Mary’s Gaels Saturday, Dec. 16 in Phoenix as part of the Jerry Colangelo Classic. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m.
“They gave themselves an opportunity to go play another game against another great program,” Kruger said. “It ain’t going to get easier, it’s going to get everybody’s attention after this one so we’ve got to understand that the work starts tomorrow morning getting ready for Saint Mary’s.”
Keylan and his twin brother, Kalib scored 25 of their combined 35 points in the second half. After missing the first seven games of the season as he awaited an answer on his eligibility, Keylan made his first appearance of the year at the 16:24-mark of the first half.
“We saw a little bit later [there was] a statement,” Kruger said. “Then it started to have some teeth and some possibilities but even then to be honest, I didn’t think there was a strong possibility that it was going to happen in the time frame that it did.”
About three minutes later, he picked up his first block of the season. Just before halftime, he scored his first basket as a Rebel.
Coming out of halftime, Kalib immediately pushed the lead to 10 on his way to scoring the first six points of the second half. In fact, the twins accounted for the first eight points of the second half.
At one point of the second half, the Boone pair scored seven straight points as UNLV continued to stretch its lead. Late in regulation, Keylan hauled in an offensive rebound off a missed three-pointer then proceeded to drain a three of his own.
“It was amazing,” Kalib said. “There was a period where coach was trusting me, Key and [freshman guard Dedan Thomas Jr.] to just run the same thing. We kept getting positive results over and over again.”
Kalib led all scorers with a season-high 25 points on 12-of-17 from the field to go along with seven rebounds and four steals. Keylan added 10 points off the bench with six rebounds. The duo helped the Rebels to 38 points in the paint while holding the Bluejays to 26.
Thomas tied a career-high with nine assists with zero turnovers for the third time through the first eight games this season. He also poured in 18 points which included hitting timely bucket after timely bucket.
Late in the first half, Thomas drilled back-to-back threes to put UNLV up seven, it's largest at that point. Just before halftime, he scored four straight points to extend it to eight as he went into the locker room with 14 points.
Fifth-year guard Justin Webster scored 13 points and splashed a dagger three late in the game to go up 16. Fellow fifth-year guard Luis Rodriguez added another trey ball out of the under-four timeout in the second half.
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