A look at the key players, plays and moments of the Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball team's 71-65 victory over the UNLV Rebels on Saturday at Lawlor Events Center:
KEY WOLF PACK RUN
The Wolf Pack saved its best for last, going on a small but effective 6-0 run over the final 47 seconds to finally put the Rebels away. Xavier DuSell's jumper with 47 seconds left broke a 65-65 tie and four free throws in the final 25 seconds were enough for the victory.
The Wolf Pack's game-winning stretch was as much about the Rebels inability to come through in the clutch as it was Nevada's ability to win a close game at home. UNLV did not score in the final 1:17 as Dedan Thomas missed a layup with 32 seconds to go and Julian Rishwain misfired on a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left. Thomas also missed two free throws with 2:02 to play that would have tied the game at 63-63.
KEY HIDDEN UNLV RUN
The Rebels only led for 50 seconds in the second half, 57-55, on a 3-pointer by Jaden Henley with 7:08 to go. But UNLV clearly dominated the Pack for a huge portion of the second half. Nevada took a 46-34 lead on a Nick Davidson layup with 14 minutes to play and seemed to have the game under control.
UNLV, though, then outscored the Wolf Pack, 23-9, over the next seven minutes to lead 57-55 with seven minutes left. Dedan Thomas, Jaden Henley and Jeremiah Cherry each scored seven points during the run. The Rebels were a perfect 6-of-6 from the floor, 2-of-2 on threes and 9-of-9 from the line during the seven minute run. UNLV actually went over nine minutes (15:01 left to 5:49 left) without missing a shot from the floor.
KEY STAT
The difference in the game turned out to be free throw shooting. The Wolf Pack was 9-of-10 from the line and UNLV was 0-for-2 over the final seven minutes of the game, turning a 57-55 UNLV lead into a 71-65 Nevada victory. The Pack was an efficient 23-of-27 (85 percent) from the line for the game while UNLV was 19-of-24 (79 percent) with Dedan Thomas (5-of-10) responsible for all five of the Rebel misses.
The Wolf Pack now has beaten UNLV three consecutive times, shooting 66-of-76 (87 percent) from the line combined in the three games. UNLV has gone 48-of-61 (79 percent) from the line in the same three games won by the Wolf Pack by three, 10 and six points.
KEY FACTOR
This was a coaching victory for the Pack. Steve Alford, it seemed, pulled all the right strings and nursed his struggling team to a victory at home against its top rival. There wasn't just one, two or three players who lifted their teammates to victory. This took all seven players who logged the most minutes for the Pack to finally hold off the Rebels. All seven struggled at times but all seven also took turns stepping up and contributing something to the victory.
Four players (Tyler Rolison, Justin McBride, Nick Davidson and Kobe Sanders) scored between 12 and 14 points, seven players had between two and four field goals, four players combined for the Pack's four threes, four had between four and seven free successful throws, seven had either one or two steals and eight had between four and eight shot attempts. If you were still wondering what type of team the Wolf Pack truly is, well you saw it on Saturday. This victory was truly a group effort, led by their coach.
KEY EMERGENCE
Backup point guard Tyler Rolison played a huge part in the victory, scoring 12 points with four rebounds and two steals in his 27 minutes. Rolison drained four crucial free throws in the final 25 seconds in front of a crowd of 11,008 to win the game. He was 6-of-7 from the line for the game. Rolison had a 3-point play for a 17-15 lead midway through the first half and a steal and a layup for a 44-34 lead with 15:16 to play in the second half.
The 6-foot sophomore had played just 27 minutes combined over a four-game stretch in late January but has gotten 23 and 27 minutes the last two games and has responded with seven and 12 points, going 10-of-12 from the line combined in the two games.
KEY FIRST-HALF SPARKS
Justin McBride and Brandon Love might have been the biggest reasons for the Pack's 33-30 halftime lead. McBride came off the bench to score 13 important points over 12-plus minutes in the first half while Love contributed eight points and a steal in his seven first-half minutes. McBride had 10 points in his first five-plus minutes to help the Pack to a 20-15 lead with 9:42 to go in the first half. He had a dunk and a 3-pointer just 68 seconds apart to cut the UNLV lead to 15-14 with 11:38 to go in the opening half. Love had a pair of 3-point plays in a span of just 37 seconds to help the Pack to a 28-21 lead with 5:31 to play in the opening half. Almost all of McBride's and Love's magic, though, disappeared in the second half as the two failed to score after the break (Love, though, blocked two shots in the second half).
KEY SECOND-HALF SPARKS
Nick Davidson and Kobe Sanders, the Pack leaders in most categories, struggled in the first half, combining for just five points (all by Davidson) before halftime. The two were passive and nearly disappeared in the first half, going a combined 1-of-5 from the floor. Sanders was 0-for-1 and was sent to the bench three different times.
The two veterans, though, came alive in the second half. Sanders had 13 points and Davidson added nine for 22 of the Pack's 38 points in the second half. Davidson had two free throws with 3:52 to play and added a layup 44 seconds later for a 63-60 lead with 3:08 to play. Sanders had two free throws with 2:16 to go to break a 63-63 tie.
KEY HIDDEN PLAYER
Daniel Foster's numbers (six points, two steals, four assists, three turnovers, five rebounds) in 28 minutes don't jump off the scoresheet. But the senior played an important role in the victory just the same.
Foster, as he does often, helped smooth over some rough Pack stretches by contributing where needed at times. He had four rebounds, two points and two steals in his 12 first-half minutes and had four points, two assists and a rebound in 16 second-half minutes. He had two short jumpers in the paint for leads of 39-32 and 48-37 in the second half.
KEY ALFORD DECISION
Alford's lineup choice down the stretch with the game tied at 63-63 proved to be brilliant. He inserted Xavier DuSell for Daniel Foster with 2:34 to play, joining Nick Davidson, Kobe Sanders, Tyler Rolison and Brandon Love on the floor. Keep in mind that Love and DuSell had been relegated to the bench for almost all of January and Rolison was just two games removed from a three-game stretch where he received a total of just 14 minutes.
DuSell, though, responded with a clutch jumper for a 67-65 lead with 47 seconds to go, Rolison calmly sank four free throws in the final 25 seconds, Sanders had two free throws with 2:16 to go and Love blocked a layup by UNLV's Dedan Thomas with 32 seconds left.
KEY PACK DEFENSIVE EFFORT
The Wolf Pack did an excellent job preventing two of the Rebels' top offensive players from finding any rhythm. Dedan Thomas (16 points a game average) had just 12 points on 3-of-10 shooting from the floor and 5-of-10 from the line. Julian Rishwain (10.1 points a game average), who played for Boston College, San Francisco and Florida before joining UNLV this season, finished with just six points on 2-of-8 shooting. Had Thomas and Rishwain simply scored their average on Saturday, the Rebels would have stolen the victory.
KEY PACK CONCERN
Tre Coleman, who has been bothered by a leg injury this past week, came off the bench for the second consecutive game after starting the first 20 games. Coleman played 15 minutes against the Rebels, missed all four of his shots, and did not score (though he did have two steals). Coleman played just seven minutes on Wednesday in a 66-56 loss at Boise State and also did not score. Coleman has now not scored a single point over his last three games (52 combined minutes, 0-for-10 from the floor) in a dry spell that started in a 69-50 loss to San Diego State on Jan. 25 (when he injured his leg).
UP NEXT
The Wolf Pack (12-10, 4-7) will take on Air Force (3-19, 0-11) in Colorado Springs on Tuesday.
Air Force is coming off a 75-64 loss at San Jose State on Saturday and will be looking for its first Mountain West victory since beating New Mexico (78-77) on Feb. 24, 2024 (16 regular-season and conference tournament combined losses in a row).
Air Force has lost 33 of its last 35 Mountain West games (regular season and conference tournament) over the last two-plus seasons (since beating Wyoming on Feb. 17, 2023).