Jaden Henley
58
UNLV UNLV 18-15,11-9 Mountain West
70
Winner Utah St. USU 26-6,15-5 Mountain West
UNLV UNLV
18-15,11-9 Mountain West
58
Final
70
Utah St. USU
26-6,15-5 Mountain West
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
UNLV UNLV 29 29 58
Utah St. USU 36 34 70

Game Recap: Men's Basketball |

Shorthanded Runnin' Rebels Fall To Utah State 70-58 In MW Quarterfinal

Three UNLV players logged 40 minutes Thursday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV men's basketball team, which was severely shorthanded, lost 70-58 to Utah State on Thursday night in the Mountain West Tournament Quarterfinals at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Jaden Henley scored a game-high 19 points for the No. 6 seeded Runnin' Rebels (18-15), while Jalen Hill and Jailen Bedford each tallied 13. All three played the entire game. Hill collected a team-high seven rebounds.

No. 3 seed Utah State (26-6) was led by Itan Martinez' 17 points, while Mason Falslev scored 15 with game highs of nine rebounds and six assists.

SLOW START: UNLV started the game shooting just 1 of 11 and found itself down 16-5 after seven-plus minutes.

RIGHT BACK IN IT: The Runnin' Rebels used a 9-0 run to pull within two at 16-14 with 8:36 to go until halftime, eventually taking a three-point lead at 22-19 with 5:55 to go until the break. Utah State led 36-29 at the half after hitting a 3-pointer just before time expired.

SECOND HALF: UNLV trailed by 10 points early in the second half and cut its deficit to four on a Bedford 3-pointer with 17:14 to go, but Utah State extended its lead to as many as 15 with 11 minutes to play and maintained control from there.

MISSING PLAYERS: UNLV was down to just six healthy players that were a part of this season's normal rotation, missing Julian Rishwain, Dedan Thomas Jr., Rob Whaley Jr. and Jace Whiting all because of injury. Bedford played with his eye bandaged after missing time on Wednesday vs. Air Force in the first round after getting hit in the face.

QUOTABLE: "What an awesome 40-minute fight by our guys. Obviously, we came up a little bit short but going into a Utah State match-up you know you're going to have to play incredibly hard for 40 minutes because of how hard they play and how together they play. With some of the mileage that we've asked the guys to put on their legs over the last couple of weeks I thought it was just an absolutely awesome fight by our guys to compete and really do everything in their power to have a chance to win against a really good team." - UNLV head coach Kevin Kruger.

OTHER NOTES: 
- Henley had a career-high-tying five assists along with five rebounds.
- Hill (9 of 11) and Henley (11 of 12) combined to shoot 20 of 23 from the free-throw line.
- UNLV shot just 23.6% from the field (13 of 55), including 15.0% on 3-pointers (3 of 20), while Utah State was 46.3% (25 of 54) and 32.0% (8 of 25), respectively.
- UNLV went to the charity stripe 20 more times than Utah State did (37-17).
- Utah State out-rebounded UNLV 41-37, however the Runnin' Rebels led in offensive rebounds 19-14.
- Utah State outscored UNLV in points in the paint 28-18 and bench scoring 24-7.
- UNLV has made at least one 3-pointer in a NCAA-record 1,260 straight games.



 
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