Ray Brewer: From the Pressbox

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Brewer: Once the Rebels started missing their shots, Aztecs pulled way

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L.E. Baskow

UNLV guard Jovan Mooring (30) battles to the hoop past San Diego State forward Max Hoetzel (10) and San diego State forward Malik Pope (21) during their game at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Tue, Jan 17, 2017 (8:50 p.m.)

First, Uche Ofoegbu hit a 3-pointer. Then, it was Jovan Mooring’s turn.

The UNLV basketball team was three possessions into tonight’s game against visiting San Diego and seemingly couldn’t miss. There’s just one obstacle when the jump shots are falling early — you settle for them the remainder of the game.

Once UNLV started misfiring, a close game turned heavily into San Diego State's favor midway in the second half. Yes, UNLV showed flashes of great play, but a 64-51 loss against the perennial Mountain West power Aztecs reaffirms what is long known about the state of UNLV basketball. The Rebels are a work in progress.

Here are some more observations from the game:

What the game means: The Rebels entered with momentum from rallying for a road win at New Mexico but couldn’t capitalize. Sooner than later, especially with the effort displayed by players, UNLV is going to go on a significant winning streak. Sooner than later, they are going to grab one of those program-building wins. While it’s easy to point to the improvement of a few players and say the program is heading in the right direction, a win against a marquee opponent would do wonders for that argument. With 10 minutes remaining, UNLV had a chance tonight for that type of win. But when you are outmatched at multiple positions, everything needs to go right. It didn’t in the final 10 minutes, especially when those jumpers weren’t falling, as the Rebels shot 31 percent in the second half. They can hang their hat on a good first half, but that’s not enough — not for the players, coaches or fans.

Mooring hits curb: Mooring has developed into UNLV’s most valuable player. In his last five games entering tonight, he’s averaged 12 points, 5.6 assists and two steals per game, which is pretty good. The junior has also earned his way into the starting lineup. Tonight, though, he was saddled with foul trouble early and it limited the Rebels. He picked up a pair of fouls in the initial 90 seconds of the second half to send him to the bench with four fouls. Three of the fouls were bad decisions, including the fourth when he was called for reaching in while attempting a steal. Mooring played 18 minutes and scored 10 points, including many minutes while in foul trouble before fouling out with 6:21 left. Along the way, he learned a lesson in his progression: to be a leader, you need to be on the court. You can’t commit unnecessary fouls. By playing careful, he wasn’t as effective. He finished with just one assist, a significant dip for the league’s leader in assists.

The rivalry with San Diego State: With personnel in the UNLV program mostly turned over from past seasons, some wondered if the rivalry with San Diego State still exits. Of course it does. If it’s important to fans, then it’s still a rivalry. Aside from the Kansas game, when a good portion of the fans were cheering against UNLV, this was easily the best-attended game of the year. That’s strictly because of the opponent. While San Diego State has dominated the rivalry over the past five years or so, the games have still been physical and easily the most anticipated of the season. Even though San Diego State entered with a 2-3 record in the league, it is still the team to beat. And even though many UNLV players hadn’t played them, it’s still one of those games of note. These are the Mountain West’s two premier programs, after all. One fan feverishly yelling at San Diego State players as they left the court, confirms my theory — “You still stink,” he drunkenly said.

A look at the stat sheet: Led by Jalen Poyser on 4-of-12 shooting, the Rebels had four scorers in double figures. ... Cheickna Dembele had eight first-half points; in the second half he didn’t attempt a shot. ... Tyrell Green and Kris Clyburn were scoreless. ... Trey Kell had a game-high 24 points for San Diego State on 9-of-15 shooting.

Up next: In this space, I typically give compelling reasons to be interested in the Rebels’ next game. I won’t lie — the matchup with Air Force on Saturday doesn’t exactly jump off the page. Both teams are in the middle-of-the-pack of the Mountain West and there’s no significant history of dislike between the programs. So, while it’s not one of those Saturday afternoons you circled on your calendar when the schedule was released, this is one of the rare instances when the Rebels are expected to win and will be the betting favorite. More important, they continue to get better with each game, and that’s enjoyable to watch. Even more important, you probably can get a cheap ticket, and Rebel basketball is always good entertainment. Well, at least for us natives.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21

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