Runnin’ Rebels Clamp Air Force With Tight Defense, 78-44, At Mack Tuesday As Three-Point Shots Fall (58 Percent)
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
UNLV’s basketball team dipped into the oldie but goodie bag of marketing tricks by offering $2 beers Tuesday evening for its Mountain West game against the Air Force Academy.
Las Vegas sports fans know $2 beer nights well. It’s a regular promotion at Las Vegas Aviators home games on Thursday nights (after the days of $1 beer nights at 51s games at Cashman Field.)
The Runnin’ Rebels are trying anything these days to get fans to come to Thomas & Mack Center, where attendance is mighty low compared to the days when Las Vegas would pack the Mack with 15,000-plus crowds.
Sure, Vegas Golden Knights games are more popular and the UNLV crowds are one-fourth of the size of the VGK gatherings. But UNLV draws the oldtimey sports fans of Las Vegas, where the Rebels were once the hottest sports ticket in town before Las Vegas started building new sports palaces and drawing major league teams.
UNLV has a potentially dangerous team led by scorers like Bryce Hamilton and Donovan Williams and inside rebounder Royce Hamm, Jr. that can upset top conference teams like Colorado State. But the Runnin’ Rebs can also lose to sub-500 teams like Air Force, which defeated UNLV, 69-62, in Colorado earlier this season. The Air Force Falcons were only 3-7 in conference play compared to UNLV’s 5-5 MWC record entering tonight’s game.
UNLV started slow on Military Appreciation Night, scoring only three points in the first five minutes against the scrappy Air Force squad.
But the Rebels began hitting threes from downtown, with players like Michael Nuga, Justin Webster and Josh Baker hitting the three-ball from beyond the arc. By the end of the game, Webster had scored 11 points, while Nuga chipped in with nine.
It helped UNLV enjoy a 39-25 lead at halftime — and the lead ballooned in the early stages of the second half.
UNLV’s defense locked down Air Force in the second half, limiting the Falcons to only 44 points for the game to improve to 14-10 overall, 6-5 in conference. UNLV outscored Air Force, 39-19, in the second half en route to the decisive 78-44 triumph.
Williams, one of UNLV’s top scorers, was out with knee issues. But the Rebs’ three-point shooting was consistent throughout the game, 11 for 19 for nearly 58 percent (Nuga, for example, was 3 for 3 from three-point land, while Hamilton was 4 of 7.)
UNLV, which drew several thousand fans to the game, requires all fans to show proof of vaccination to attend home basketball games at Thomas & Mack Center. UNLV said attendance was more than 5,300.
Hamilton led UNLV’s scorers with 24 points, while Hamm cleaned the glass to the tune of 16 rebounds. Hamm scored 12 points, while guard Jordan McCabe dished out 10 assists. In fact, UNLV had 20 assists on 26 baskets made — a stat that impressed coach Kevin Kruger.
UNLV plays Boise State on the road Friday.
