Harkless, Gilbert lead UNLV to comeback win at No. 21 New Mexico

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Saturday, Jan. 7, 2023 | 10:18 p.m.

Two minutes into UNLV’s Saturday night showdown at New Mexico, it looked like Keshon Gilbert might have been broken.

Coming off two lackluster games — both losses — the sophomore guard once again got off to a rocky start as New Mexico’s Jaelen House stripped him in the backcourt two times in the first four possessions. The Lobos raced off to an 8-0 lead and UNLV head coach Kevin Kruger had no choice but to pull Gilbert from the game.

Instead of sulking or quitting, however, Gilbert used the bench time to compose himself. And when Kruger reinserted him later in the half, he was back to his old self, driving and dishing and barking at opponents (and the partisan fans at The Pit).

Gilbert fought his way to 14 points and five assists, and UNLV dug itself out of that early hole to knock off No. 21 New Mexico, 84-77.

It was a shocking way for the Scarlet and Gray to pick up their first Mountain West victory of the season. A loss would have dropped them to 0-3 and raised major questions about the team going forward, and when Gilbert was pulled, it looked like that’s where things were heading.

Kruger, a former point guard himself, said the only advice he gave Gilbert on the sideline was to stop dangling his dribble in front of House. The rest was all Gilbert’s doing.

“That’s maturity,” Kruger said. “Taking a point guard out two minutes in, that’s tough. That’s tough on your ego. We’ve all been there as point guards. It hurts. But he sat down, I tapped him on the knee and said, ‘You can’t play with it, you’ve just got to go.’ He nodded his head and from then on he was elite.”

Gilbert rallied to make 5-of-7 shots from the field and contributed a ton of hustle plays, including a sideline steal that turned into a behind-the-back assist to Luis Rodriguez as part of a 9-0 UNLV run to open the second half.

Gilbert finished with a season-high four steals.

He said despite his slow start to conference play and the first two minutes at New Mexico, his teammates encouraged him to keep getting after it.

“It was just, ‘Bounce back. Next play.’ They were saying I was okay. No pressure. Just get to the next play.”

UNLV also got a monster second half from senior guard E.J. Harkless, who is quickly becoming the team’s go-to guy over the final 20 minutes. On Saturday, Harkless scored 21 of his 25 points after halftime, including several acrobatic and downright ludicrous finishes in the final minutes to carry his team across the finish line.

With his team up, 65-62, with five minutes left, Harkless took a give-and-go pass from Luis Rodriguez, skipped through the lane and converted a tough-angled up-and-under layup to extend the lead to five. Harkless then made a pair of free throws with three minutes left to give UNLV a 74-71 cushion, but his biggest shot came with 40 seconds left.

After losing his dribble twice and recollecting it off the floor, Harkless took two long strides around a defender and dropped in a 15-footer off one leg to make it 80-74 in favor of UNLV.

Harkless said he practices that unconventional shot, which came in handy when it was time to deliver the dagger.

“Yeah man, I lost the ball, but we had great spacing,” Harkless said. “The other team didn’t have a chance to get it. I gathered it and ended up getting my step-through that we work on every single day and making a difficult shot.”

Harkless made 7-of-11 from the field in the second half, while UNLV converted at a rate of 55.6%.

Harkless, Gilbert and Rodriguez combined to do a fantastic job on the defensive end as well, holding New Mexico’s high-scoring backcourt duo of House and Jamal Mashburn Jr. to 31 points on 11-of-28 shooting.

“I just want to do whatever it takes to win,” Harkless said.

UNLV is now 12-3 overall and 1-2 in the Mountain West, with home games against Boise State (Wednesday) and Colorado State (Jan. 14) next on the schedule.

Judging by the boisterous locker room after the game, it seems this could be the kind of win that rejuvenates the Scarlet and Gray as they head into the thick of the Mountain West schedule.

"It feels great," Kruger said. "In this atmosphere, it's more fun. Fifteen thousand people screaming and yelling the whole time, those games are fun. And especially when you can come out on top, they're that much more fun."

And now that Gilbert has broken out of his slump, Kruger believes he’ll consistently deliver game-changing performances — something UNLV will need in order to make a run at a postseason berth.

“He played loose, he played free, he had fun,” Kruger said. “He was everyone else’s biggest cheerleader and I think that’s why he had such good success early on [in the season] and I think that’s the Keshon we’re going to see from here on out.”

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