The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels came close to a win, but had it slip away in the closing moments. Utah State defeated the Runnin’ Rebels 76-71 on Wednesday night.
The Runnin’ Rebels battled back after being down 16 points before the end of the first half to tie the game at 56 each.
Dedan Thomas, Jr. led the Runnin’ Rebels, scoring a season-high tying 22 points and six assists. Jaden Henley and Jalen Hill scored 16 points. Henley grabbed a game-high six rebounds. Hill had three steals and five rebounds.
The Aggies came up big, having five players scoring in double-digits. Deyton Albury led the Aggies scoring 16 points. Drake Allen scored 15 points. Three players had five rebounds each.
Jalen Hill tied the game with an and-1 with 5:50 left. The Runnin’ Rebels only scored one time over the next five minutes. Utah State then took a 10-point lead, 69-59.
Utah State’s bench outscored the Runnin’ Rebels’ bench 37 to four.
“This is a tough place to win. It is an unbelievable venue. For the guys to battle from 16 down, when it would have been very easy to give up and lay down, they just continued to fight. I’m not a moral victory guy,” UNLV coach Kevin Kruger said, “I won’t sleep, I won’t eat, I won’t feel good about it, but when I watch the film, I’m going to take the positives of the things we did well and the things that we can build on, because we’ve proven we’re a good team in this conference. We’ve just been on the short end of some of these really tough games. There’s no shame to lose to Utah State in Logan, but now it’s how do we get up off the mat? How do we react? How do we respond tomorrow? Because it’s a very quick turnaround (to our next game at UNR).”
The Runnin’ Rebels will meet UNR on Saturday at 7 p.m. PT. The game will be televised on CBS Sports Network.
