UNLV's Bryce Hamilton hopes to stay hot, earn first win over rival UNR

Bryce Hamilton has been on quite a heater over the past two weeks.

Thirty-two points at Air Force. Thirty against San Jose State. Twenty-three at San Diego State. And on Friday it culminated in a career-high 42 points in an upset win at Colorado State.

Hamilton has shot the lights out, making 53.22% from the field (41-of-77) and 51.6% of his 3-point attempts (16-of-31) during his scorching streak. The avalanche of buckets has pushed him to the top of the leaderboard, as he is now the Mountain West’s high scorer at 24.8 points per game.

After practice on Monday, a media member asked Hamilton what he has in store for UNLV’s game against UNR on Tuesday. Another 40? A 50-piece?

Hamilton laughed — but didn’t immediately shoot it down.

“I don’t know,” he said with a smile. “We’ll see how the game goes. Whatever the defense gives me, I’ll take.”

What Hamilton would like more than anything on Tuesday — even more than another high-scoring explosion — is a victory. The senior guard has never beaten UNR, running up an 0-4 record against the Scarlet and Gray’s in-state rival.

Hamilton went 0-2 as a freshman under Marvin Menzies, 0-2 as a sophomore under T.J. Otzelberger, then missed last year’s meetings due to an ankle injury. That leaves the Wolf Pack as the only Mountain West team Hamilton has not defeated since arriving in 2018.

Hamilton is aware of that fact, and over the past few days he has made his teammates very aware of it, too.

“I’ve never beat them since I’ve been here, so that’s something I take personal,” Hamilton said. “I want to beat them in my time here at UNLV. It’s a huge game and I’ve been sharing that with them.”

Beating UNR appears to be an attainable goal. After dominating the rivalry under previous coach Eric Musselman, the Pack have regressed in two years under current coach Steve Alford. UNR is 9-9 on the season and 3-4 in Mountain West play; by comparison, UNLV is 12-9 and 4-4 in league. UNLV is No. 105 in the KenPom ratings, while UNR checks in at No. 123.

UNR is coming off a brutal 78-49 home loss to Utah State, so Hamilton expects to get the Wolf Pack’s best effort.

“We already know they’re going to play hard because it’s a rivalry game,” Hamilton said. “They also just lost at home by a lot, so we know they’re going to come hungry. We’re going to be ready. We’re happy about our game at Colorado State but we’re not going to be complacent. We’re still going to come out and play our game.”

If Hamilton can continue to carry the offense efficiently, he will have UNLV in great position to pick up that elusive rivalry win.

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