Have a night, Boone twins.
Kalib Boone scored 29 points, twin brother Keylan scored 17, and UNLV earned its first Mountain West victory by knocking off a good New Mexico team, 83-73.
Kalib Boone put in serious work down the stretch, scoring five post baskets in the final six minutes to protect UNLV's lead. He finished 11-of-16 from the field, and UNLV shot 50.0% as a team.
Luis Rodriguez turned in a stellar performance on the defensive end, guarding UNM leading scorer Donavan Dent and limiting him to three points on 1-6 shooting.
UNLV is now 8-6 on the season and 1-1 in Mountain West play, with another home game against Utah State set for Saturday afternoon.
UNLV pulling away from New Mexico in second half
Rob Whaley just put an exclamation point on this one, and UNLV is heading toward its first Mountain West win, leading 69-52 with 7:42 remaining.
Whaley left the game early in the second half with what appeared to be a cramp, but he returned midway through and made an immediate impact. After taking a pass from D.J. Thomas at the elbow, Whaley rushed to the rim and threw down a tomahawk dunk over a defender, drawing a foul in the process. He made the and-1 free throw to push UNLV's lead to 21.
Kalib and Keylan Boone have been on tonight, scoring 17 points apiece on combined 10-of-20 shooting. Thomas has 12 points and six assists, and UNLV is shooting 55.0% as a team in the second half.
This will go down as UNLV's second-best win of the year, after the Creighton victory, and move the team to 1-1 in conference play.
UNLV leads New Mexico, 52-44
The Scarlet and Gray have a real chance to knock off New Mexico tonight, as they hold a 52-44 lead with 14:16 remaining.
UNLV opened the second half with a 10-4 run, powered by a pair of 3-pointers from Keylan Boone and a nifty putback by Luis Rodriguez. That spurt pushed the lead to 50-42, and a minute later Kalib Boone scored in the post to extend it.
UNLV could have a chance to add to the lead here. New Mexico just committed a turnover, with Luis Rodriguez earning a jump ball via a tie-up. While the referees were separating the two sides, a UNM player appeared to push D.J. Thomas from behind. A technical was called, and the refs are now reviewing on the monitor.
If the tech stands, UNLV will have an eight-point lead, two free throws and the ball. That's about as good a start to this half as they could have hoped for.
UNLV leads New Mexico at half, 40-38
After a plodding 20 minutes, UNLV has carved out a slim, 40-38 lead over New Mexico at the break.
Twenty-five foul calls and 30 combined free throws slowed the game to a crawl, and both teams are going to have to navigate the foul situation in the second half. Starting forwards Kalib and Keylan Boone each have two fouls for UNLV, as does backup big Rob Whaley. On the New Mexico side, starters Jaelen House, J.T. Toppin and Jamal Mashburn Jr. have two personals.
Kalib Boone has been productive when not forced to the bench due to foul trouble. He's got 13 points in 12 minutes, making 3-of-6 from the floor and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line. D.J. Thomas has 10 points and three assists.
If they keep fouling at this rate, this game may come down to which team makes its free throws down the stretch.
New Mexico, UNLV battling in first half
New Mexico has put on the clamps, using backcourt pressure to harass UNLV and take a 23-21 lead over the Scarlet and Gray with 7:57 left in the first half.
After a relatively mistake-free opening stretch from UNLV, the Lobos started doubling in the backcourt and pressuring inbound passes. UNLV has struggled to deal with the pressure, committing a pair of bad turnovers to spur a 5-0 run by New Mexico.
J.T. Toppin has eight points to lead the Lobos, and Jaelen House has two points and two assists.
UNLV big man Kalib Boone picked up a second foul before the timeout, meaning he's likely to spend the rest of the half on the bench. Kevin Kruger sent out little-used center Karl Jones to fill in for now.
UNLV starts hot vs. New Mexico
Keylan Boone and D.J. Thomas just hit back to back 3-pointers, and UNLV has built a nice little 13-4 lead over New Mexico with 15:01 left in the first half.
It's an encouraging turnaround for the Scarlet and Gray, who got demolished in the opening minutes at San Diego State on Saturday. One key so far has been ball security; UNLV has committed just one turnover, and it was of the dead-ball variety, giving the speedy New Mexico attack no opportunity to go the other way in transition.
Senior wing Luis Rodriguez has also hit a 3-pointer, and he's got a game-high five points at the first media timeout.
UNLV basketball hosts New Mexico
UNLV basketball dropped its first conference game over the weekend, but Kevin Kruger’s crew will look to bounce back on Tuesday when Mountain West rival New Mexico visits the Thomas & Mack Center (7 p.m., FS1).
Three keys to watch:
Hill out for season
For most of the first half of Saturday’s game at San Diego State, Jalen Hill looked like the impact player UNLV thought it was getting this offseason. The senior forward scored off the dribble, rebounded and provided some physicality on defense.
Then, late in the half, he collided with an SDSU player and collapsed. Hill left the court and returned wearing a knee brace, using crutches to get around.
Kruger did not offer an update on Hill’s status at practice on Monday, but later in the day UNLV announced the inevitable: Hill is out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL.
UNLV has plenty of reps without Hill, as he missed the previous six games due to a hand injury, but it’s still a big loss.
Senior guard Justin Webster said Hill’s contributions will be missed in a bunch of different areas.
“Losing Jalen is big,” Webster said. “He impacted everything. Defensively, rebounding, he’s a big piece of what we have, so losing him is tough.”
New Mexico backcourt
In a college basketball world where rosters change every five minutes, it seems like New Mexico has sported the same backcourt forever.
For the third straight year, it will be Jaelen House and Jamal Mashburn Jr. handling the ball when the Lobos come into the Thomas & Mack Center, and this time around they’re joined by sophomore Donovan Dent, who is actually the leading scorer at 16.6 points per game.
UNLV senior guard Justin Webster has been lining up against his UNM counterparts for three years now, and he knows how difficult — and important — it will be to keep them from running wild.
“They’re very fast,” Webster said. “If you let them get their rhythm, they can be very hard to guard. Our plan is to take them out of their rhythm, slow them down a little bit, take away their transition.”
Ball security
UNLV might have had a chance to win at San Diego State on Saturday if they had only taken care of the ball. That’s an admittedly tough task against the Aztecs’ aggressive defense, but 14 turnovers was just too many.
With House ready to pressure UNLV’s ballhandlers the length of the court, ball security is going to be in the spotlight again on Tuesday.
“We’ve got to get good looks,” Kruger said. “Good, quality looks. We’ve got to make people guard.”
Who: UNLV (7-6, 0-1 MWC) vs. New Mexico (13-2, 1-1 MWC)
When: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Thomas & Mack Center
TV: FS1
Radio: 1100 AM, 100.9 FM
UNLV leaders
Scoring
Luis Rodriguez: 12.5 points
Rebounds
Keylan Boone: 7.7 rebounds
Assists
D.J. Thomas: 6.2 assists
New Mexico leaders
Scoring
Donovan Dent: 16.6 points
Rebounds
JT Toppin: 7.7 rebounds
Assists
Donovan Dent: 6.2 assists
Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.
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