Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Jacobson’s leadership proves to be difference for Utah down the stretch

As UNLV players intermittently filed by him, congratulating him on his performance, in the hallway outside both teams' locker rooms, Nick Jacobson talked about his best Monday move.

Utah's senior point guard felt the glare of a national cable television audience and the heat of one of the most boisterous Thomas & Mack Center crowds in recent years, but he did not back down in both teams' Mountain West Conference opener.

A 10-point Utes advantage was about to be whittled to three, after Justin Hawkins had committed his fifth and final foul almost midway through the second half. Before Utah broke a huddle, though, Jacobson took over.

He tightened the circle, raised his voice and threw quick stares at each of his four teammates.

"That will be their biggest thrust of the game," Jacobson barked about the Rebels. "I don't think they have anything more than that. They'll run out of energy. Let's just mop it up and stay strong, and we've got this game."

Although UNLV charged back to tie it twice late, Utah did not trail over the final 33 minutes in a game it won, 72-67, before an announced crowd of 12,191.

Jacobson scored a game-best 27 points, one shy of his career mark, and he was the only player on either side to log all 40 minutes.

"Nick was awesome tonight," said Utah senior center Tim Frost, who contributed 14 points on 6-for-8 shooting while battling a lower-back injury that has plagued him for a week. "He carried us. He's our senior captain, and he did a great job.

"It's a young team, so we huddled around. It's loud in here, kind of a rough environment. But we toughed it out and got a big win."

Utah had played against Connecticut, Texas Tech and Louisiana State this season, losing to each on the road.

"It's been a steady maturation of this team," Jacobson said. "We've played in a lot of hostile environments, against tough teams, so we're starting to get the hang of it."

After Rebels center J.K. Edwards sank two free throws to tie it, 65-65, with 2:12 remaining, Jacobson gave the Utes (13-3, 1-0 in the Mountain West) the lead for good by nailing two free throws of his own 24 seconds later.

And with 9.3 seconds left, UNLV (9-4, 0-1) was forced to foul Jacobson after it had squandered some opportunities at the line and been atrocious (4-for-16) from beyond the 3-point arc all night.

Jacobson coolly drained both free throws to finish the game's scoring and end a four-game winning streak by the Rebels.

"Yeah, I live for that," he said. "Every day, growing up, it's what you practice for and what you prepare for. There's the payoff for all of your hard work. I went up there confident, knowing I'd make them, because I'd made them thousands of times before.

"So there was no doubt those were going in."

In the first 6 1/2 minutes, Jacobson scored nine points on three jump shots and a 3-pointer from the top of the key as the lead went back and forth. He poached an easy bucket against UNLV's 2-2-1 press, and he sank another 3-point shot off a snappy inbound pass.

Still, it was tight until Utah rattled off a run early in the second half, which the Rebels countered before a crowd that roared louder each time they nudged closer to the Utes.

With 11:20 left, when Odartey Blankson's two free throws off of Hawkins' fifth foul crept UNLV to within 47-44, Jacobson had seen and heard enough.

"I was definitely premature on saying that," he said of imploring victory. "But this team ... we're young, and I want them to believe that we'll win, that (the Rebels) didn't have anything left, that we just play strong.

"I'm trying to instill confidence in them. We have to learn that team ego, where no one will beat us anytime, anywhere. It has to develop over time, and it's games like these that forge that."

It's what UNLV, which plays six of its next eight games on the road, needed Monday. It's what Utah got from Jacobson.

"I said we were going to do it, but it was a team effort," said Jacobson, a 6-foot-4 catalyst from Fargo, N.D. "It was all about us believing in ourselves. We were in a tough place, and I said we were going to have the perseverance to pull it out.

"Frost is playing hurt, that's no secret. But I'm not going to let this team hang onto that excuse. The guy is playing in pain, and he hit some big shots tonight. The guy deserves credit."

That's what Jacobson received plenty of from each and every Rebel who slinked past him in a hallway a few minutes before midnight.

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