Rebels rally back against San Diego State only to lose at buzzer

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Published Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019 | 9:15 p.m.

Updated Saturday, Feb. 23, 2019 | 10:55 p.m.

The first meeting between UNLV and San Diego State ended with the Aztecs’ future NBA player making a much-debated 3-pointer at the buzzer. Saturday’s rematch at the Thomas & Mack Center ended when a Rebels’ walk-on player missed a 3 as the horn sounded.

It would have been poetic justice if non-scholarship junior Nick Blair had been able to deliver some payback for Jalen McDaniels’ garbage-time shot in SDSU’s win on Jan. 26, but Blair came up empty from the right wing as time expired, and San Diego State escaped with a 60-59 win.

UNLV struggled offensively for the first 30 minutes and trailed by as many as 12 points in the second half, but senior point guard Noah Robotham caught fire, making three consecutive 3-pointers to get the Rebels back in the game.

Four straight free throws from sophomore center Mbacke Diong gave UNLV a 51-48 lead with five minutes remaining, but the Rebels were only able to make one more field goal the rest of the way.

McDaniels scored an inside basket to give SDSU a 57-56 lead with 2:24 remaining, and Kris Clyburn answered by drawing a foul and draining both free throws to put UNLV back in front.

The teams traded empty possessions, and then chaos reigned. San Diego State point guard Devin Watson dribbled across halfcourt and saw his head coach, Brian Dutcher, signaling for a timeout. Watson gathered his dribble and protected the ball, appearing to make a hand signal to call time. Some UNLV defenders slackened and began walking toward the bench, but the referees did not blow their whistles and play continued.

With the ball still live, Watson swung a pass to the corner, where forward Matt Mitchell was camped out all by himself. Diong had to race out from under the basket in an attempt to challenge the shot, but he bit on a pump fake and left his feet, allowing Mitchell to draw contact on a 3-pointer.

Mitchell made all three free throws to put San Diego State ahead, 60-58, with 1:26 to play.

Diong said the Rebels were confused by the timeout non-call.

“I think they were trying to call a timeout,” Diong said. “Watson was trying to call timeout, but he passed the ball to the corner and [Mitchell] was wide open. It was wide open, so I just tried to go challenge it. I should have closed out short and made him drive it, but instead I jumped.”

Amauri Hardy hit 1-of-2 free throws on UNLV’s next possession, and after a defensive stop the Rebels had a chance to take the lead with less than a minute to play. A a baseline out-of-bounds play went nowhere, however, and led to Hardy stepping out of bounds. The Rebels fouled McDaniels and he missed a pair with 10 seconds left, leaving the Aztecs with a 1-point lead.

With no timeouts remaining on the final possession, Hardy twice attempted to penetrate but was cut off by the SDSU defense. His kick-out pass set up Blair to be the hero, but his shot came up just short, bouncing off the front of the rim.

Menzies said the Rebels did not execute their offense well enough down the stretch.

“We had a couple guys on one page, a couple guys on another page, but I thought that they learned from that,” Menzies said. “In the locker room we talked about it and kind of sorted it out just now in terms of what we need to do next time we’re in that scenario.”

With the loss, UNLV drops to 15-12 on the season and 9-6 in conference play. San Diego State (18-9, 10-4 MWC) solidified its hold on fourth place in the Mountain West standings.

Robotham finished with a game-high 18 points on 5-of-6 shooting from 3-point range. Clyburn scored 15, and Hardy totaled 11.

McDaniels scored 16 points to pace San Diego State.

UNLV will head on the road to play at first-place UNR on Wednesday.

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