The UNLV men’s basketball team dominated the boards to defeat UNR 68-55 on Friday, ending a three-game losing streak against its in-state rival.
The defensive effort saw the Rebels establish a 34-26 lead at halftime and a whopping 27-12 rebounding advantage.
By the final buzzer, junior guard Jaden Henley had scored a career-high 23 points for the Rebels (16-13, 10-8 Mountain West), who finished with a 48-27 rebounding edge.
Senior forward Jalen Hill added 16 points and eight of those boards.
“I think that just goes to show that we don’t like them,” he said when asked about UNLV’s rebounding effort. “That’s our rival. So we always want to beat them. We want to beat up on them. And that’s it.”
Senior guard Kobe Sanders scored 30 for the Wolf Pack (16-13, 8-10), a scoring explosion UNLV coach Kevin Kruger didn’t have any issue with.
“I think I’ll go back, watch the film and still be probably more than OK with a lot of the shots that he took,” Kruger said.
A one-handed slam dunk from junior center Jeremiah “Bear” Cherry put the Rebels up 40-30 five minutes into the second half. Senior guard Julian Rishwain’s four-point play was the decisive possession, putting UNLV up 59-45 with five minutes left to play.
All the Rebels had to do from then was maintain the momentum until the final buzzer.
Here are three takeaways from the victory:
1. Jelling defensively
In the Rebels’ second win in three games without injured leading scorer Dedan Thomas Jr., it was quickly evident the matchup wouldn’t result in a lot of points.
The teams exchanged six defensive rebounds for nearly four minutes before UNR junior forward Nick Davidson made a layup for the first points of the game.
The Rebels made only 4 of 20 3-pointers (20 percent), but UNR was even worse at 3-for-21 (14.3 percent).
“Obviously we’re in a pretty good rhythm right now defensively,” Kruger said. “The curve balls that have been thrown make the offensive side a little more difficult. But the one thing we can control is how we’re guarding people. And (in the) last handful of games, guys have been really good at that.”
2. Kruger’s first tech
Henley opened the lid for the Rebels with a 3-pointer. Once the Rebels got on the scoreboard, Kruger illustrated the emotions of the rivalry by drawing the first technical foul of his career.
Cherry excited the crowd by following Henley’s 3-pointer with a dunk to take a 5-2 lead, but Kruger appeared to be upset by the officials failing to call a foul on the Wolf Pack, who had been double-teaming Cherry from the opening tip.
The fourth-year coach was able to joke about the career milestone postgame. Kruger noted that he’s known the technical foul-issuing referee, Randy McCall, since he was being officiated by him as a player.
“I think I startled him. He said I was too far on the floor,” Kruger said. “I’ve known him forever. I haven’t seen it yet … but I believe him, because he’s a great ref, great guy. I wish I could tell you some story about a profanity-laced (rant and how) I really got my two cents in and just made him feel terrible, but I just guess I was too far out there.”
After sophomore guard Tyler Rolison made both technical free throws, Sanders scored on a jumper to put UNR back ahead.
There were nine lead changes in the first half. But by the time the Rebels went on a 8-0 run to take a 28-19 advantage with 2:22 left until the end of the half, UNR’s last lead was a faint memory.
“I was pretty fired up,” Henley said of Kruger’s tech. “We know that he cares about us, and he shows it.”
3. Bedford hurt?
Henley said postgame that his confidence as the primary ball-handler in Thomas’ absence is “really high.”
That much was clear in any of his highlight plays on the night, which marked his second consecutive career high after he recorded 22 points in a win over San Jose State on Tuesday.
Now that the team has seemingly adjusted to Thomas’ absence, guard Jailen Bedford might be out.
The senior transfer, who recorded a team-high 11 rebounds, went down late on an attempted dunk. He limped off the court with what appeared to be an ankle injury, and Kruger said he didn’t have an update on his status.
This comes after sophomore guard Brooklyn Hicks missed the team’s last practice but was still able to play Friday. The team has been without senior forward Rob Whaley Jr. and junior guard Jace Whiting all season.
“The group’s just kind of getting smaller and smaller, in terms of availability,” Kruger said. “Bedford took a hard spill, tried to go, so we’ll have to see how he’s feeling. But I think this group mentally is ready to prepare with whatever the result of or diagnosis or result of Bedford’s fall will be, because they were ready when they found out that (Thomas) wasn’t going.”
UNLV will play its last home game of the regular season at 8 p.m. Tuesday against San Diego State (19-7, 12-5).
Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.