Rebels beat zone from outside in win over Western Kentucky

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L.E. Baskow

UNLV forward Tyrell Green (3) is hugged by UNLV forward Djordjije Sljivancanin (12) after his fine performance helps the win over WKU during their game at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016.

Sat, Nov 26, 2016 (8:36 p.m.)

UNLV Battles Over WKU

UNLV forward Tyrell Green (3) elevates to the basket over WKU defenders during their game at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday, Nov. 26, 2016. Launch slideshow »

Sometime in the 20 hours between Friday’s loss to TCU and Saturday’s game against Western Kentucky, the UNLV basketball team figured out one way to beat a zone defense: If you can’t go through it or around it, go over it.

Following that game plan, the Rebels buried Western Kentucky’s zone under an avalanche of 3-pointers, making 13 from beyond the arc to pull away for a 71-61 victory.

More than half of the Rebels’ shot attempts came from behind the line (13-of-29 from 3-point range, 24-of-57 overall), and it worked — for one game, anyway. Jalen Poyser and Tyrell Green were the top marksmen, going 6-of-11 and 5-of-6 from long range, respectively. Green finished with 23 points, while Poyser scored 22—both career highs.

The hot outside shooting helped UNLV overcome the issues they had on Friday, when TCU switched to a 2-3 zone and completely swallowed the Rebels’ offense. The ball movement was more fluid and more confident against Western Kentucky, and it led to wide-open outside looks. Making the shots was the easy part.

“Everyone was looking for each other, passing the ball, moving the ball,” Green said. “That was something we didn’t really do well [against TCU] all the time, but I feel like we did it more today.”

Though the Rebels didn’t have time for a practice between the two games, coach Marvin Menzies showed his players film of the TCU game and implemented some zone-beating plays during Saturday’s walk-through.

Poyser must have caught on quickly, as the sophomore point guard also set a career high with nine assists (against just one turnover).

“We just watched tape this morning, and in shootaround we were really hitting on executing our zone offense,” Poyser said. “We executed it tonight and we were successful.”

For a few tense moments, Saturday’s game looked like a replay of Friday’s loss. UNLV jumped out to a quick start again, opening on an 8-0 run against Western Kentucky’s man-to-man defense. But just like TCU had, the Hilltoppers switched to a 2-3 zone and UNLV looked flummoxed. The lead was eventually erased and Western Kentucky went into halftime with a 30-28 advantage.

UNLV’s execution improved dramatically in the second half, however, with Poyser, Green, Uche Ofoegbu and Jovan Mooring all hitting triples to put the Rebels back on top.

The biggest shot came from Green, who beat the shot-clock buzzer and buried a contested 3 from the right corner to extend UNLV’s lead to 63-56 with 1:25 to play. The Rebels made their free throws the rest of the way to seal the win.

Though Menzies was frustrated by the team’s execution against the zone in the first half, he generally approved of the end result.

“We were chopping them up in the man, but as soon as they went to the zone, it was like, ‘Ok guys, we just talked about this. We just reviewed this. We just walked through it. Good offense. Bad offense vs. the [zone]. Move the ball. These are the spots.’

“So that makes it a little more frustrating, when you know they can be so much better at it. But in their defense, they rallied in the second half. They were very good at the execution part of it. And we made some big shots. T-Green and J.P. were really big offensively tonight. Both those guys had career highs, and that’s what you need from experienced guys.”

The Rebels were once again without the services of senior forward Christian Jones, who will be out for at least “a few weeks” with a foot injury, according to Menzies. Cheickna Dembele also sat out with his own foot injury, which left 6-foot-8 Dwayne Morgan to start at center again.

Morgan made a difference, scoring eight points and grabbing six rebounds in 21 minutes. He would have played more, but he once again had to tip-toe through foul trouble for the entirety of the game. Morgan picked up his fourth personal with 18:55 remaining in the second half and had to sit, but he re-entered with 9:20 left on the clock and managed to chip in six points, two rebounds and a steal the rest of the way.

The Rebels improve to 4-2 with the win and will now prepare to hit the road for the first time when they travel to take on Southern Utah on Wednesday. The Thunderbirds are coached by former UNLV interim Todd Simon, so there will be some added intrigue.

After watching film of Poyser and Green torching Western Kentucky’s zone, Simon may opt to employ a man-to-man defense.

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