Wearied Rebels wither at Boise State in 81-69 loss

By Taylor Bern

Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2016 | 11:59 p.m.

In the second half at Taco Bell Arena, a ball bounced out of bounds toward UNLV’s bench, where freshman Stephen Zimmerman Jr. stood up to grab it and posed for a second like he was going to shoot. Perhaps if simply touching the ball magically swapped Zimmerman’s white polo for a jersey then the Rebels would have had a chance here Tuesday night, but that’s not how this works.

Zimmerman, who has been out since Feb. 6 with a knee sprain, tossed the ball back and the wearied Rebels continued to run out of fumes en route to an 81-69 loss to Boise State. The silver lining, other than keeping it close for 24 minutes, is that UNLV might get its 7-footer back for Saturday’s home regular-season finale against Wyoming, and maybe more help after that.

“He’s dying to get out there, he’s dying to play,” UNLV interim coach Todd Simon said of Zimmerman. “… We’re hoping and optimistic that he’ll be back soon.”

They’re also hoping that sophomore Dwayne Morgan, who missed the last two games and has been ruled out of Saturday’s contest because of a strained shoulder, could follow close behind. Their return is key to any potential run in the Mountain West tournament, because the Rebels are all but eliminated from getting a bye, which means the climb is already steep.

The league’s tournament format has changed a few times, but in the seasons that have spread the men’s games over four days, only one team (Boise State in 2014) played on the first day and made it to the semifinals, let alone the title game. And as the Broncos showed Tuesday night, the Rebels have to have more size (and more bodies) to hold their own against the top half of the league.

UNLV (16-13, 7-9) started this game pretty well and Boise State (18-10, 9-6) played into the Rebels’ hands by hoisting every 3-pointer it got a look at, hitting 5-of-21 in the first half. But a 9-0 Broncos run to finish the first half started to show the cracks, and Canyon Springs High grad Mikey Thompson kick-started a 32-10 second-half run that buried the Rebels for good.

The biggest problems were turnovers and giving up offensive rebounds, which have made appearances in most UNLV defeats. The Rebels committed 21 turnovers that turned into 26 points for Boise State, and for the first 13 minutes of the second half they had only three total rebounds, losing that overall battle 41-29 while the Broncos scored 23 second-chance points on 20 offensive rebounds.

“We try to maintain a gang rebounding mentality, but they were able to get hands on balls and their length kind of got over our size,” Simon said.

Boise State’s James Webb III finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds, plus a few more that he tipped out to teammates before exiting with a knee injury when he and UNLV senior Jerome Seagears went down. Other than the right heel that shot pain into him and the same turnover problems the entire team had, Seagears had a good overall night with 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting plus three assists.

Freshman Derrick Jones Jr. led all scorers with 25 points (7-of-8 shooting, 11-of-12 free throws), seven rebounds, four blocks and two steals.

“That’s just what we want everyone to know, we’re never going to give up,” Jones said. “We’re going to play hard to the end.”

Effort can only carry this roster so far, though, especially on the road so soon after an overtime game. Sophomore Pat McCaw played all 45 minutes against UNR, as did sophomore Jordan Cornish. Against Boise State, McCaw shot 2-of-10 for six points with 12 rebounds in 39 minutes and Cornish scored eight with six turnovers in 34 minutes.

McCaw’s scoring becomes more important as UNLV’s numbers get smaller, so his cold shooting combined with a 1-of-9 effort (plus six turnovers) from freshman Jalen Poyser was too much to overcome.

“We need to make baskets when we’re this small, because certainly there are going to be disadvantages at the other end,” Simon said.

The Rebels have Wednesday off before what’s sure to be lighter than normal practices in preparation for Wyoming. As long as Zimmerman handles the contact OK he’s expected to get back in the rotation, and fewer polos is exactly what UNLV needs.

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