FSM Essential Recap: UNLV vs San Diego State - Game 24

FSM Essential Recap: UNLV vs San Diego State – Game 24

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UNLV (11-13) vs. San Diego State (20-4)

 

UNLV can’t pull off the upset as San Diego State wins the Mountain West Conference regular season title. 

 

The Runnin’ Rebels fall to San Diego State 71-62 in their final home game of the season. This drops UNLV to 11-13 on the season after the nine-point loss. It was a game that UNLV was never really out of. San Diego State was the better team, and they had a lead most of the game; however, UNLV never let it get too out of hand despite not being able to catch up on the Aztecs.

The Aztecs get their Mountain West-leading 20^th win of the season as well as their 14^th conference win of the season. It clinched their second consecutive regular-season Mountain West Conference title.

 

Despite the loss, David Jenkins had one of the best individual performances for the Runnin’ Rebels all season. 

 

The transfer played his best game since coming over to Las Vegas to play for the Scarlette and Gray. He shot 11-23 from the field on Wednesday night and finished with 32 points in the game. He shot 50% from beyond the arc knocking down 7 of his 14 shots taken from three-point land.

Unfortunately for Jenkins and the team, he did not get much help offensively. He finished with more than half his teams’ total points. The next highest scorer for UNLV was Bryce Hamilton and he finished with a quiet 9 points. It wasn’t a dominant game from Hamilton that UNLV has seen so much of this season as he only shot 3-14 from the field. The Runnin’ Rebels shot 39% from the field and from three-point range as a team.

The games was tied at 28 apiece with time going down in the first half; however, a 7-0 run in the final two minutes of the first half and another 7-0 run in the first two and a half minutes of the second half totaling a 14-0 run for the Aztecs really gave San Diego State some breathing room. The closest UNLV got to coming back in the game was during garbage time when they cut it to nine, the same amount they lost by.

San Diego State gets its 20^th win of the season behind no other than Matt Mitchell. He finished with a team-high 19 points, with 7 of those points coming from the free-throw line. The Aztecs shot 26 times from the free-throw line making 22 of them, compared to UNLV who made 7 out of 9 attempts. Jordan Schakel contributed with 16 points, while Nathan Mensah added 14 points as well.

 

UNLV has their final regular season game of the season when they play at Wyoming on Saturday.

 

The Runnin’ Rebels will wrap up their regular season when they travel to Wyoming to make up a game that was postponed due to Covid earlier in the season.

Wyoming sits just behind UNLV in the standings with a 12-9 overall record, however, a 6-8 conference record. The Cowboys have been a streaky team this season, winning 7 of their first 8 games of the year before dropping the next 4. They then won 3 straight before losing another 4 games in a row. They have won their previous two games, which came against New Mexico, two games scheduled to be played against San Jose State after that was postponed. They have a battle with Utah State on Thursday before the meeting with the Runnin’ Rebels.

“We knew against a very good team, the importance of every possession. We had some good spurts but didn’t play a complete enough game for 40 minutes. When it was tied at 28 prior to halftime, that 7-0 run hurt us. We have to be more stubborn, more gritty and stay the course, and not allow those runs because against a good defensive club like that it’s hard to make that up.” UNLV head coach T.J. Otzelberger said after the game.

 

Notes:

 

• The game was a make-up from the scheduled two-game series that was postponed earlier in the season. This is the lone regular-season meeting between the two teams.
• Trailing by as many as 16 early in the second half, UNLV cut its deficit to eight at 53-45 with 8:50 to play but would get no closer.
• Both teams shot under 40 percent from the field. SDSU was 20 of 55 for 36.4%, while UNLV was 23 of 59 for 39.0%
• SDSU recorded eight steals, while UNLV had four.
• The Runnin’ Rebels blocked a total of six shots to just one for the Aztecs.
• There were a total of eight lead changes and five ties throughout the game.
• UNLV has made at least one 3-pointer in an NCAA-record 1,126 straight games.

 

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-Jarret Thompson – Franchise Sports Media

Follow Jarret on Twitter @Jarret_2T 

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