Valentine’s Day massacre: UNLV basketball swept by San Jose State

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023 | 10:05 p.m.

San Jose State is a better basketball team than UNLV.

It may be hard to believe for anyone who has followed UNLV, San Jose State, or the Mountain West in general for the past decade, but the Spartans proved it for 40 minutes on Tuesday night. SJSU shot nearly 50% from the field in dispatching the Scarlet and Gray for the second time this season, this time cruising to a 75-66 victory on UNLV’s home court.

UNLV has now lost two in a row and sits at 5-9 in Mountain West play. That puts them in eighth place in the conference standings with four games remaining, while San Jose State (7-6 MWC) is now in fifth place.

It’s safe to say this is not exactly where Kevin Kruger thought his team would be when they started the season 10-0.

During that sublime stretch, UNLV overwhelmed opponents with a pressure defense that put ballhandlers on their heels. On Tuesday, San Jose State was not at all shaken by the prospect of running its offense against the Scarlet and Gray; they made 27-of-56 shots from the field (48.2%) and dominated inside, producing 30 points in the paint.

Unbothered by UNLV’s interior defense, San Jose State converted 13-of-18 attempts categorized as dunks and layups.

“Thirty points in the paint is tough,” Kruger said. “Thirty points in the paint is just too many.”

E.J. Harkless scored to pull UNLV within 48-46 with 13 minutes left in the second half, but that’s when the other end of the floor turned into a layup line. For SJSU, Sage Tolbert drove and dunked, Omari Moore made a layup and Robert Vaihola dribbled inside for an easy basket to make it a 54-46 margin in favor of the Spartans.

Those three consecutive uncontested baskets proved to be the difference in the game.

Kruger said UNLV simply got caught flat-footed when it mattered most.

“We had a lot of really good possessions for the majority of the clock, and then it just didn’t have that final touch to it,” he said. “We’d have good stretches and good spurts, and then we’d be caught standing.”

Trey Anderson led San Jose State with 19 points, while Moore finished with 14.

Harkless scored 19 to pace UNLV.

Kruger made some adjustments to his rotation before the game, subbing out Victor Iwuakor and inserting David Muoka into the starting lineup. Muoka posted eight points, four rebounds and a block in 23 minutes, and UNLV was -1 with him on the floor. The team was -8 in Iwuakor’s 15 minutes.

While Muoka was a little more effective protecting the rim, neither was capable of making a difference against San Jose State.

With four games remaining, Kruger wants to find a way to restore the verve that UNLV had on defense early in the year. He thinks his team is playing tentative now, as if they are expecting bad things to happen on that end of the floor.

It’s not going to be easy, as that 10-0 start fades further away with each passing game.

“When you’re feeling good and you’re upbeat and you’re puffing your chest out, it’s got a different weight to it,” Kruger said. “We just had too many possessions tonight where it felt like something was going to go wrong at some point, instead of having that confidence or swagger.”

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