Rebels have a blast in 110-71 win over Northern Arizona

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016 | 9:30 p.m.

With less than a minute to play in UNLV's 110-71 win over Northern Arizona, seldom-used big man Djordjije Sljivancanin loped across midcourt, received a pass on the wing and lined up a 3-pointer.

His previous two 3-point makes drew big reactions from the UNLV sideline. Sljivancanin is popular with his teammates, and the Serbian freshman has a sort of gangly charm that has already won over Rebels fans, so the shot he unfurled toward the end of Tuesday's blowout win had the entire building heaving with anticipation. When it dropped through the net, the explosion of joy was palpable.

The Rebels were having fun.

For a team that seems to understand tougher times lie ahead (starting Friday, when 4-0 TCU comes to the Thomas & Mack), savoring the good times seemed to be a priority on Tuesday.

And there was plenty to celebrate. Northern Arizona (1-5) looks like a bad, bad, very bad team, but credit UNLV with taking care of business when presented with a vastly inferior opponent. The Rebels moved the ball superbly on offense (26 assists on 45 field goals), harassed the ball on defense (forcing 16 turnovers) and put this one into the win column early, jumping out to a 23-6 lead before pushing the advantage to 53-25 at the half.

From that point on, it was party time.

"It was fun watching the whole team score," Poyser said. "Basketball is supposed to be a fun game. When you see your other teammates having fun, we're having fun. It's just a beautiful thing to watch."

Poyser contributed to the jovial atmosphere by scoring a team-high 17 points on 8-of-15 shooting. The sophomore guard also notched six assists and two steals, and UNLV outscored Northern Arizona by 33 points in the 24 minutes that Poyser was on the court, giving him the best plus/minus rating on the night.

Five other Rebels made it into double figures, including Sljivancanin (15 points), senior forward Tyrell Green (15), junior guard Jovan Mooring (15), freshman forward Troy Baxter (13) and senior guard Uche Ofoegbu (10). Green made 3-of-6 from 3-point range, while Ofoegbu had a team-high eight assists.

The pace was tremendous from the opening tip, as UNLV pushed the ball in transition and outscored NAU, 26-8, in fast-break points. Poyser and Baxter each had breakaway dunks that contributed to the Mardi Gras feel inside the Mack.

The only downers were injury-related. Senior Christian Jones didn't suit up due to soreness in his foot, and freshman Cheickna Dembele only logged five minutes before his own foot injury flared up and forced the coaching staff to shut him down as a precaution. After the game, coach Marvin Menzies didn't go into detail about either injury and wouldn't speculate about their availability for the TCU game on Friday.

Sophomore Dwayne Morgan got the start at center in Jones' place and posted six points, six rebounds and two blocks.

The party can't last forever, unfortunately, and after the game Menzies pointed to some flaws that will need to be corrected before the Rebels take the court again on Friday. He noted that Northern Arizona defended certain plays in a way that he expects TCU to emulate, and that the Rebels didn't do a good enough job in those situations.

"In general, no, we didn't handle a couple of the things they did defensively," Menzies said. "I won't give you the full scouting report, but we didn't respond the way I would have liked. It wasn't horrible, but most of our buckets came in another way. We've got to fix that."

But that can be an issue for Wednesday's practice and film session. On Tuesday, the Rebels improved to 3-1 and got to have a little fun doing it.