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From a four-game win streak to back-to-back losses for the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels as they look to not lose control of the season.
After having their four-game win streak snapped last game, UNLV lost a second straight contest Saturday afternoon. It dropped a road meeting with Colorado State, 84-62, from Moby Arena.
“We take a punch and then it takes us a while to get up off the mat,” head coach Kevin Kruger said. “When your confidence is shaken a little bit, that's one of the effects. Just got to get back in the gym and get working. It’s a long season and we’re five games in.”
Following a fast start to conference play, the Rebels are now 9-7 this season after suffering consecutive Mountain West defeats.
Saturday was the second of back-to-back road games for the program. The team is currently in a stretch that’ll see it play three road games versus just one home contest. Three of those four games will be contested against the top four teams in the conference.
As it presently stands, UNLV sits in the sixth spot in the Mountain West standings.
The road doesn’t get any easier for this year’s Rebels as they get set to return home for a date with the No. 25 Utah State Aggies. That game is set to be played Wednesday, Jan. 15 from the Thomas & Mack Center.
”We get an opportunity to take a deep breath tomorrow and recharge,” Kruger said. “Then get back in the gym and get back after it on Monday. But confidence is a tricky thing, when you’re feeling really good you get up quickly and you’re [secure] that everything is still going to be alright. When your confidence is low, it feels like everything that can go wrong will.”
In the first half of Saturday’s loss, UNLV trailed by as many as 12 points before having the lead pushed to 13 early in the second half. Even with the difficult climb, the team would trim the deficit to as little as six points about midway through the second 20-minute session.
Immediately after the Rebels’ spurt, the Rams responded with a 9-0 run to take another stranglehold on the game. After closing the game on an additional 7-0 run, the total response by the home team was 26-10 en route to the win.
”We came out of the gates and shot it well,” Kruger said. “We were able to do some things offensively [but] they were able to keep us at arm’s length.”
Despite trailing for the vast majority of the game, including the first half, it wasn’t particularly a bad showing on the offensive side for UNLV. It went into halftime having shot 54% from the field but couldn’t stop Colorado State from countering it with a 65%-mark from the floor in addition to its 11-point lead at the break.
At one point of the first half, the Rams had converted on 70% of its field goal attempts. They finished with 24 assists on 30 total field goals made.
“In the first half it felt like we were running into every screen,” Kruger said. “And they shot it really well in the first half. They shot 8-of-12 and anybody that shoots 8-of-12 is going to be really tough to beat […] I thought they ran really good stuff and did a good job getting each other open and I thought we were just a little on our heels.”
Junior guard Jaden Henley reached double-figures in the score column for the eighth time in his last nine outings. He had a fast start to the game with two early three-pointers on his way to 11 first half points.
Henley finished with 19 points on 7-of-13 shooting to go along with two rebounds and a steal. As a team, the Rebels connected on three of its four three-point attempts before finishing the first half with four makes on nine tries. It would end the game with just five made threes on 17 total attempts.
Henley’s 19 points shared in the team-high with sophomore guard Dedan Thomas Jr.. He scored his 19 points on 8-of-13 from the floor coupled with a team-high six assists.
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