Up-and-Down Season Ending With A Thud: Frustrated UNLV Losing To Utah State, 69-50, Late In Game Thursday
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by Hugh Byrne
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — He’s like a modern Dick Vitale with curly hair, a hyperactive stat-reciter who told everyone yesterday that UNLV beat a team other than Air Force in the Mountain West Conference tournament for the first time in a decade.
Josh Pastner came off equal parts passionate, goofy and basketball lover — and the Josh Pastners are the secret sauce behind March Madness’s hoops craziness. His Runnin’ Rebels squeaked out a 73-70 win over Wyoming Wednesday to win a quarterfinal date with MWC top-seeded Utah State, a team swept by UNLV during the regular season.
UNLV is one of those teams that could lose any game but also win four games in four days to punch a ticket to the NCAA’s March Madness tournament. They have a quick-as-a-waterbug, three-point shooting guard named Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn; a shot-blocking phenom, Tyrin Jones, a mere freshman from Las Vegas; a tough, inside scorer in Kimani Hamilton; and a triple-double specialist, Howie Fleming, Jr.
There’s freshman Isaac “Super John” Williamson, who has a nice three-ball shooting touch, and a scrappy fella from New Zealand named Walter Brown.
“It’s going to be a grind of a game,” Pastner said during the game. “You have to be tough and hard-nosed.”
On March 3, UNLV wiped out Utah State here at Thomas & Mack, but the pace of today’s game was completely different.
UNLV led Utah State, 16-13, in the first half but a Utah State 17-5 run gave the Aggies a 30-21 lead.
Utah State took a 37-23 lead into halftime. Gibbs-Lawhorn and Hamilton scored only two points each in the first half.
PSA
