Blog: O’Brien leads SDSU as UNLV falls 60-58 in regular season home finale

By Taylor Bern

Published Wednesday, March 4, 2015 | 7 p.m.

Updated Wednesday, March 4, 2015 | 10:20 p.m.

San Diego State 60, UNLV 58

Game over

San Diego State's JJ O'Brien drove past UNLV's bigs for his final basket and his career-high 22nd points that turned out to be the biggest shot in San Diego State holding on for a 60-58 victory against UNLV tonight at the Thomas & Mack Center. The Rebels drop to 16-14 overall and 7-10 in Mountain West play.

O'Brien was great from the start but UNLV countered very well and led for a bulk of the game as Dwayne Morgan (13 points on 4-of-6 shooting), Cody Doolin (12 points, four assists, three rebounds) and Christian Wood (10 points, 16 rebounds) all had solid games. Pat McCaw left the game with 14:20 remaining after banging his face against Wood and McCaw never returned to the game, giving UNLV even fewer options.

Still, the Rebels battled until the end and played great defense for stretches. The game was tied with two minutes remaining but O'Brien's drive shifted the advantage to SDSU as UNLV had to try to fight back the rest of the way and just ran out of time.

The Rebels wrap up the regular season Saturday at San Jose State and will be the No. 7 seed in the Mountain West tournament, playing their first game at 2:30 p.m. next Wednesday. Check lasvegassun.com later tonight for a full report from the Rebels' defeat.

It was a change many of us were clamoring about for more than a month, but it wasn’t until Jan. 17 at San Diego State that freshman Pat McCaw made his first start against a Division I opponent. McCaw had already proven himself the breakout surprise of the recruiting class and was playing basically starters’ minutes, but considering UNLV’s slow starts, particularly in the second half, it only made sense to maximize his value.

Tonight, when the Rebels host San Diego State at 8 on CBS Sports Network with a chance to possibly deny the Aztecs a Mountain West title, the game could be decided by McCaw, who’s been really good since moving into the starting lineup and even better since Rashad Vaughn went down with a knee injury. At the time Vaughn suffered a partially torn meniscus against Fresno State on Feb. 10, he was the front-runner for Mountain West Freshman of the Year, and while the award will probably go to Utah State’s David Collette, there’s a strong case to be made for the guy who had to up his scoring output in Vaughn’s absence.

UNLV coach Dave Rice has said he doesn’t want to look at the Rebels as a spoiler, but that’s exactly what they would be with a win. After losing at home for the first time in 30 games, San Diego State goes into the final week of regular season games tied with Boise State, which handed the Aztecs that loss and swept the season series.

Boise State has San Jose State away and Fresno State at home to close the year, so it’s not likely to lose. Likewise, San Diego State is very unlikely to lose at home Saturday to UNR, so UNLV appears to be the only thing standing between a co-championship and an outright title for the Broncos.

Achieving that would take good performances from several Rebels, but because of what he can do at both ends none might be more important than McCaw. Since moving into the starting lineup, McCaw, who for the season leads the team with a 53.8 effective field-goal percentage, has shot that number up to a super efficient 59.7. He’s also kept up the 2.2 assist-to-turnover ratio that ranks second in the Mountain West in league games and in the five games since Vaughn’s injury McCaw’s had his three highest-scoring games of the season, including 21 points on 10 shot attempts in Saturday’s victory against Wyoming.

Throw in his abilities as a defender, which includes 1.4 steals per game and, more important, the energy and length to deny passes and force teams into the second and third looks. A great game from him is UNLV’s best path to an upset tonight.

Bern’s prediction: Senior night for Cody Doolin and Jelan Kendrick should draw a decent crowd, especially considering the opponent, but the Aztecs will do just enough to avoid losing two in a row. San Diego State 64, UNLV 60

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.