UNLV throttled by North Carolina after hot start in ‘Maui’

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Published Monday, Nov. 30, 2020 | 5:50 p.m.

Updated Monday, Nov. 30, 2020 | 7 p.m.

For one brief stretch at the beginning of Monday’s game against No. 14 North Carolina, head coach T.J. Otzelberger got to see his vision for UNLV basketball come to life.

Bryce Hamilton opened the game with a long 3, then knocked in a mid-range jumper. Caleb Grill and David Jenkins followed with back-to-back 3’s, and when Hamilton threw down a transition dunk, UNLV found itself with a 13-0 lead just minutes into the contest.

That glorious glimpse open-floor offense provided the blueprint for what UNLV wants to be this season. Unfortunately, it was as fleeting as it was impressive.

After UNLV’s initial burst, North Carolina asserted itself through superior size and athleticism in the frontcourt. The Tar Heels used nine second-chance points and 19 points in the paint to claw their way out of the early hole and build a 37-30 lead at halftime, and from there they pounded UNLV into submission by a final score of 78-51 in the first round of the Maui Invitational in Asheville, N.C.

In a season that began with high expectations, UNLV is now 0-2, with both losses coming by double digits.

While it was porous defense that doomed UNLV in its season-opening loss to Montana State, it was cold shooting that ultimately sealed their fate them against Carolina. UNLV lost its 3-point touch quickly; after opening the game 3-of-3 from deep, the scarlet and gray made just 2-of-13 to close out the first half. They connected on 2-of-20 in the second half, finishing the game at just 19.4 percent from beyond the arc.

Otzelberger credited the North Carolina defense for making life difficult on UNLV's top scorers, and chastened his own team for not persevering when the Tar Heels turned up the heat.

“As the game wore on, [North Carolina] picked up the pressure, brought some presses, some traps, denied entries more on the wings," Otzelberger said. "And we didn’t do the job we needed to do to be stubborn to get open.”

Bryce Hamilton led UNLV with 15 points on 7-of-19 shooting (2-of-9 in the second half), while Jenkins struggled again, following up his seven-point debut in the season opener by scoring four points on 1-of-9 shooting. Jenkins, a prized transfer who averaged 19.7 points per game in his last season at South Dakota State, is somehow shooting 16.7 percent from the field after two contests.

Carolina closed the first half on a 15-3 run, then opened the second half with an 18-4 spurt to put UNLV in a 21-point hole. Jenkins and Grill each missed a pair of 3-pointers during that early second-half run, while Hamilton botched an uncontested layup. UNLV made just two of its first 17 shots after halftime, including 1-of-10 from 3-point range.

The Tar Heels' pressure defense gave UNLV very little room to breathe and consistently forced them to initiate their offense further from the basket than they would have liked.

“I think North Carolina started to have more pressure, bringing us out like 35-40 feet out on the court," Hamilton said. "They started to key in more and we didn’t have much ball movement.”

North Carolina's towering frontcourt helped the Heels grab 19 offensive rebounds and convert them into 21 second-chance points.

Grill made three 3-pointers and finished with 10 points and four steals. Freshman wing Nick Blake, who scored 16 points in his college debut on Wednesday, tallied seven points in 14 minutes.

UNLV has two more games in Asheville and will play the loser of the Stanford-Alabama game on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.