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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
UNLV’s once-powerful men’s basketball team once owned this town before the Vegas Golden Knights and Allegiant Stadium came along, so it was an adrenalin rush for longtime Las Vegas locals to feel the emotional intensity and see all the red shirts splashed everywhere around the Thomas & Mack Center Saturday evening in Las Vegas.
After UNLV’s women’s basketball team polished off Nevada, Reno in the afternoon in the adjoining Cox Pavilion, the men took care of business with a rugged 68-62 win in a raucous atmosphere that rocked with 8,734 fans in announced attendance.
UNLV came into the game with only two wins in eight conference games, while Nevada boasted a 6-2 record in the Mountain West.
But UNLV was a one-point favorite and deployed its turnover-inducing defense that led to 11 wins in the first 12 games before conference play started. The Rebs led at halftime, 35-33, before sealing the six-point win even with 12 missed foul shots.
“We stuck our chest out a little bit,” UNLV coach Kevin Kruger said, noting a return of the Runnin’ Rebels swagger. “Competed like crazy.”
Kruger said the players fed off the high-intensity energy of the season’s loudest crowd.
“It had the buzz of a rivalry game,” Kruger said after the game. “It was a huge reason why we kept that confidence.”
There are no words you can put into how great it was to go out there and see that – how important it is. Hopefully everyone had a great time. I know the guys appreciated it and I know we appreciated it as a staff and also as a university. Just going out there and seeing people cheering and seeing people talking, it had that buzz of a rivalry game. There was no doubt that having the crowd get into it the way they did tonight was a huge advantage for us. — UNLV men’s basketball coach Kevin Kruger
It was also an important boost for the UNLV men’s program, which is now competing with a long list of other sports competitors in the same price category like the Las Vegas Desert Dogs, Henderson Silver Knights, Las Vegas Aces, Las Vegas Lights, Vegas Knight Hawks and Vegas Vipers.
Saturday’s crowd was loud, with old-time fans punching the air in glee on UNLV’s big baskets. A DJ playing loud arena music stoked the crowd and implored the locals to make some noise.
UNLV improved to 14-7 and 3-6 in the MWC. Elijah Harkless scored 18 points and Justin Webster was 5 of 8 from three-point land and added 17 points. It should be noted that Victor Iwuakor was a plus 18, leading UNLV contributing big-man defense with six points and six rebounds.
Earlier in the day, the Lady Rebels sold out Cox Pavilion and easily defeated UNR by 23 points to improve to 20-2 and 10-0 in conference play. The sellout had attendance of 2,500 fans.