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  • UNLV Men's Basketball Falls To The Visiting Colorado State Rams In MW Action

UNLV Men's Basketball Falls To The Visiting Colorado State Rams In MW Action

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Basketball

The UNLV men's basketball team (14-13, 8-8) had its three-game win streak snapped on Saturday night with a 61-53 loss to Colorado State (18-9, 12-4) at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Runnin' Rebels, who were led by Jailen Bedford's 17 points off the bench, were without point guard Dedan Thomas Jr. for the first time. Bear Cherry added 16 points and six rebounds, and Jalen Hill contributed 10 points with eight rebounds and two steals.

Nique Clifford led the Rams with 14 points, 14 rebounds and five assists. Kyan Evans scored 14 points with five assists and Jaylen Crocker-Johnson had 10 points.

STAT OF THE GAME: UNLV made just 7 of its 17 free-throw attempts.

SLOW START: UNLV found itself down 14-2 five minutes into the contest, but battled back to tie the game at 18 apiece with 6:30 to go until halftime. CSU held a one-point lead at the break, 27-26.

BACK AND FORTH: CSU started the second half with an 8-1 spurt but the Runnin' Rebels fought back again and a long Bedford 3-pointer gave them a 37-36 lead with 13 minutes to play. The Rams pushed their lead back up to eight at 48-40 with 7:30 to go, but UNLV again battled and tied the game on a Cherry hook shot with 3:11 to go (53-53). Colorado State held the Runnin' Rebels scoreless from there, finishing the game on an 8-0 run.
 
QUOTABLE: "Obviously, a tough one. We did what we needed to do to give ourselves a chance to win the game. Guys were locked in. There was disappointment in the locker room because of the investment put in, getting ready for a very good Colorado State team. There are a lot of great things that we will take from the film, but the most important thing is that I am so unbelievably, incredibly proud of them for taking that prep and for giving it every single thing they had out there, trying to make it work in a number of situations that were new and that hopefully lights even more of a fire for us tomorrow to get ready for another really good team in conference." - UNLV head coach Kevin Kruger

OTHER NOTES: 
- It was the fourth straight game that UNLV held its opponent to 61 points or less.
- CSU won both regular-season meetings against UNLV this season.
- There were six lead changes and four ties throughout the game.
- Cherry was 6 of 11 from the field, while Hill was 4 of 7.
- UNLV held Clifford to just two points in the first half.
- UNLV shot 57.1% (12 of 21) in the first half and finished the game at 42.0% (21 of 50).
- CSU shot just 39.3% in the first half (11 of 28) and finished at 42.3% (22 of 52).
- UNLV held CSU to 26.3% on 3-pointers (5 of 19).
- CSU led in rebounding, 35-30.
- UNLV led in points in the paint (34-26) and bench scoring (17-0).
- UNLV has made at least one 3-pointer in a NCAA-record 1,254 straight games.

NEXT FOR THE RUNNIN' REBELS: UNLV will play at San Jose State on Tuesday, Feb. 25. The 7 p.m. game will be broadcast on the Mountain West Network and ESPN Radio Las Vegas.