Overwhelmed early at UCLA, Rebels suffer their third straight loss

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Friday, Nov. 15, 2019 | 11:17 p.m.

Friday night's blowout loss at UCLA must have felt to the Runnin' Rebels like they were staggering across a finish line of sorts.

It was the third straight defeat for T.J. Otzelberger's crew, and the third straight at the hands of a power-conference opponent. But although UNLV had chances to win the first two during that stretch, there was no such opportunity on Friday. UCLA was too athletic, too precise and too good for UNLV, and the 71-54 final score accurately reflected the gap between the teams.

The three losses didn't just take a toll mentally, either — the players have to be feeling it physically, too. Against UCLA, Otzelberger employed a rotation that was tighter than a Ramones song — only four Rebels scored — and the exhaustion was plain to see in the final minutes. UNLV spent the end of the first half and the beginning of the second trimming a 22-point deficit to nine, but once fatigue kicked in UCLA was able to pull away.

Now it's over. With the Rebels' toughest stretch of the season behind them, they will return to the Thomas & Mack Center for a Monday game against Abilene Christian, and the team is hopeful that they gained some sort of wisdom from their three-game mini-gauntlet.

With the strength of schedule leveling off to some degree, there may also be more opportunity for Otzelberger to loosen the reins on the rotation and give his core players more rest.

After the game, Donnie Tillman — who tallied a team-high 18 points in 35 minutes — offered a positive perspective despite the ugly loss.

"It made us way better," Tillman said. "That's why we had them on the schedule. We had Kansas State, we had Cal, [we had UCLA]. You're not going to have a lot of teams like that in the Mountain West. We're going to watch the film, we're going to take it back, we're going to eat it and we're going to get better. Simple."

Tillman made 7-of-13 from the field and connected on 3-of-6 from 3-point range, marking his best offensive showing as a Rebel. He got little support, however. Junior guard Amauri Hardy scored nine points in the first half, but ended up with 13 on 6-of-17 shooting. Senior guard Elijah Mitrou-Long scored 13, and sophomore guard Bryce Hamilton chipped in 10. That's it. No one else managed a single point.

Junior guard Jonah Antonio attempted one shot in the first half (a missed 3-pointer) and did not play in the second half. Hamilton started the second half in Antonio's place and logged 17 minutes after the break.

UNLV committed 10 turnovers in the first half and fell behind 19-5 just eight minutes into the game. It was 36-14 in favor of UCLA a few minutes later, and the outcome was never really in doubt after that.

The UCLA guard trio of Chris Smith, Tyger Campbell and Prince Ali combined for seven 3-pointers and 45 points.

Otzelberger said his team was worn down by the extended comeback attempt.

"Our guys kept fighting," Otzelberger said. "I felt like they kept competing. We probably hit a wall with about eight minutes left where we were just out of gas, truthfully. But I felt like they continued fighting and competing, even though we were down and a little bit overmatched."

UNLV is now 1-3 on the season, but four consecutive home games from Nov. 18 to Nov. 26 should give the team a chance to find its footing.

Hardy expressed confidence that losing three games to quality opponents will work out better for UNLV than playing cupcake opponents.

"It definitely makes us better for the long term," he said. "A couple of these teams, they might end up being really good in their conferences. Coming out and having these games really brings us together as a team, whereas if we were playing some average Joes that we just beat, the wins wouldn't necessarily mean anything."

Of course, the Rebels actually have to learn some lessons from these early-season beatings and apply it on the court for it to mean anything.

Hardy said the biggest takeaway from Friday's loss is that the Rebels can't afford to come out with anything less than their best effort, or future opponents will bury them early the way UCLA did.

"We can't come out like that ever again," Hardy said. "Never. Not in the next couple games, never. No more this season."

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