UNLV Rebels guard EJ Harkless (55) celebrates after scoring during a game against the Southern Miss Golden Eagles at the Thomas & Mack Center Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022.
Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022 | 10:10 p.m.
At practice on Wednesday, UNLV sophomore guard Keshon Gilbert responded to a question about team rebounding by saying he and his teammates needed to embrace the “dirty work” and compete for every ball.
The Scarlet and Gray applied that attitude to every aspect of the game in Thursday’s 74-63 victory over Southern Mississippi.
And it’s a good thing they did, because dirty work is the only way a team is going to win a contest in which they shoot 33.3%.
UNLV trailed at halftime, 33-32, and made just nine field goals in the second half (9-of-32, good for 28.1%). But despite the ugly shooting performance, Gilbert and his teammates made enough plays — most of them not aesthetically beautiful — to pull ahead and eventually close the door on a pretty decent Southern Miss team (11-2 record).
Gilbert lived up to his word, as he scrapped under the basket and came away with a career-high 10 rebounds.
Head coach Kevin Kruger said UNLV’s commitment to dirty work was evident, especially over the final 20 minutes.
“We were diving on the floor, guys were trying to get in there and rebound with the person that they weren’t necessarily standing next to when the shot went up,” Kruger said. “Muddying things up. We ended up with 25 deflections, the majority of which were in the second half.”
On defense, Kruger’s squad got back to the ball pressure that has become the team’s identity this year, and their renewed efforts led to 25 turnovers by Southern Miss. UNLV converted those takeaways into 33 points.
Gilbert, Luis Rodriguez and E.J. Harkless each finished with four steals.
The rest of the UNLV team also committed to doing the little things, and that’s what made the difference on a night when it seemed they couldn’t buy a bucket.
The turning point in the game came midway through the second half, when UNLV used a 15-0 run to take the lead and build a double-digit advantage. Most of that spurt came from the free-throw line, as Gilbert, Rodriguez, and especially Harkless flung themselves into the paint and earned trips to the free-throw line.
For one brutal six-minute stretch (12:41 to 6:40), UNLV missed 11 straight shots from the field but actually increased its lead from 48-43 to 55-49.
Harkless, who made five free throws during that run, said it was a testament to UNLV’s defense-first mentality.
“Just the resiliency, man, to come out and get stops,” Harkless said. “Don’t let your offense affect your defense — that’s something coach [Barret] Peery and the coaching staff say every single day. Don’t ever let your offense affect your defense, because if you always defend, you always have a chance.”
UNLV held Southern Miss to 12-of-32 from the field over the final 20 minutes.
Kruger attributed the lockdown defense to his players being more vocal after the break.
“When we’re quiet, we don’t get a lot of good results,” he said. “When we’re talking and bouncing around and we’ve got great activity, we’ve shown we can be elite.”
Harkless scored 15 of his team-high 19 points in the second half. Rodriguez posted 18 points and seven rebounds, and Justin Webster added 12 points.
UNLV finishes nonconference play at 11-1, and Kruger said the players will have the holidays off before returning to campus to prepare for the start of the Mountain West schedule (at San Jose State on Wednesday).
Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.
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