Blog: UNLV’s tournament ends in quarterfinal loss to San Diego State

By Taylor Bern

Published Thursday, March 12, 2015 | noon

Updated Thursday, March 12, 2015 | 8:21 p.m.

San Diego State 67, UNLV 64

Game over

With UNLV needing a rebound to potentially save its season the Rebels came up empty not once but twice. San Diego State's offensive rebounds and putback in the final 30 seconds put the margin at five and the Aztecs iced the game away at the free-throw line. The Rebels' season is done at 18-15 pending a decision to play in the CIT or CBI tournaments.

It went back and forth but like nearly every other game in this series it came down to the end. UNLV led by six at halftime, the 16th straight game it has led at the break, and San Diego State needed less than three minutes to snap out of its offensive funk and take the lead. But UNLV had some counterpunches in it and got back to moving the ball well on offense.

Christian Wood was great with 21 points and eight rebounds, including many plays that kept UNLV in the game, but SDSU's Aqeel Quinn matched his 21 points and the Aztecs got big performances down the stretch from JJ O'Brien and Winston Shepard.

Jelan Kendrick finished with 13 points and 13 rebounds while Cody Doolin had 10 points, including 6-of-7 at the free throw line. UNLV shot 4-of-10 there in the second half, one of many ways the game got away from them.

Check lasvegassun.com later tonight for a full report from the Rebels' defeat.

The scouting report shouldn’t have taken too long for UNLV to go over before today’s 6 p.m. tip against San Diego State at the Thomas & Mack Center. The Mountain West tournament quarterfinal matchup will air on CBS Sports Network.

This is the teams’ sixth meeting in the past two seasons and the last one, a 60-58 Aztecs victory, occurred in this same building eight days ago. In that meeting, freshman Pat McCaw missed the final 14:20 because of a concussion, and in his return to the lineup in yesterday’s 67-46 victory against UNR McCaw was good but not great with his usual defense but poor shooting and more turnovers than usual.

The turnovers will be interesting to monitor as McCaw shares ball-handling duties with seniors Cody Doolin and Jelan Kendrick against San Diego State’s full-court press.

Some turnovers are going to happen, but limiting that is one of UNLV’s keys today. Another is getting another dialed in performance sophomore Christian Wood, who scored 28 points with seven rebounds against UNR.

There’s almost no way Wood will come close to that scoring output again today, but more important is how he handles the double teams that are going to be coming at him pretty much every possession. More high-low action with Goodluck Okonoboh, which worked well yesterday could be good, or getting the ball out and reversed to shooters like McCaw and Jordan Cornish, who had a solid game yesterday with 13 points.

Bern’s prediction: I’m hoping for and expecting another game that goes down to the wire. If that’s the case UNLV will have a chance but I can’t be confident picking them to execute, even with the season on the line. San Diego State 57, UNLV 54

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.