Kruger: ‘No words’ as UNLV bottoms out in 90-58 loss to Air Force

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024 | 2 a.m.

With 90 seconds left in the first half of Tuesday’s game against Air Force, Kevin Kruger tried to turn the tide.

After Justin Webster hit a 3-pointer to trim Air Force’s lead to 37-21, Kruger called timeout. UNLV had trailed by as many as 20 points, and though the Scarlet and Gray had been stunned and staggered, the coach sensed an opportunity to spark a comeback. He wanted to make sure his team understood the plan: Finish the half strong, keep the deficit within reason and build momentum heading into the locker room.

The teams took the court following the timeout, and Air Force forward Luke Kearney immediately scored on a backdoor cut.

It took 13 seconds.

The comeback never ended up materializing in the second half, as Air Force pushed its lead as high as 38 points before cruising to a 90-58 victory at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The demoralizing loss dropped UNLV to 9-9 on the season and 2-4 in Mountain West play.

Kruger could not manage an explanation for how Air Force, which came into the night riding an eight-game losing streak, managed to outclass UNLV in every facet of the game.

“There’s no words for that one,” Kruger said.

The simplest explanation is that this is UNLV. It’s a team that can lose to lowly Southern on opening night, then blow out No. 8 Creighton a few weeks later. They can beat conference contender Boise State on the road, then come home a week later and no-show against an Air Force team with an 0-5 MWC record.

From day to day, there’s no predicting which version of this UNLV team is going to show up.

Kruger said there were no warning signs in the days leading up to Tuesday’s game that UNLV might be in danger of such a disastrous performance.

“Certainly not,” Kruger said. “We have a group of guys that have played Air Force before and been through that prep. There was certainly nothing in the last two days. It’s always a scary prep because of exactly what they did tonight; [Air Force] made it look like we didn’t practice for two days. There was certainly nothing specific that made me think this was going to happen.”

Kruger said he got a bad feeling about the game when Air Force hit six of its first seven 3-point attempts en route to building a 35-15 lead. At the other end of the floor, UNLV couldn’t make heads nor tails of the Falcons’ zone defense. When entry passes to center Kalib Boone were denied, possessions withered.

UNLV shot 31.6% for the game and made just 5 of 28 from 3-point range (17.9%).

Contrary to Kruger’s report that things seemed fine heading into the game, senior wing Keylan Boone said he and his teammates took for granted that they’d waltz past Air Force for an easy win.

“As a team, we didn’t take them seriously at all,” Boone said, “and that was our fault. We didn’t come out with the right mentality, the right mindset. It’s not just one day, this was the whole prep of it.”

Junior forward Rob Whaley concurred with Boone.

“We came out flat and soft,” he said.

Air Force forward Ryan Petraitis took advantage of UNLV’s lethargy by posting a triple-double of 18 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists. Falcons guard Ethan Taylor led all scorers with 22 points.

As a team, Air Force shot 55.4% from the floor and 14 of 28 from long distance.

Justin Webster led UNLV with 14 points. Whaley had 11 points and four rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench.

And so UNLV continues on its confusing, topsy-turvy campaign — up and down, riding high and sinking low.

If Kruger could find a way to make the good version appear consistently, the program would be challenging for a spot atop the league standings. So he’ll keep trying.

“We’ll meet as a staff and try to figure out what we can do differently,” Kruger said. “Seven days ago we were flying high, and today, not so much.”

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.