UNLV pushes past CAL W76-75
It was a wild game up in Berkley, the fans were into it, and the commentators were into it – if you were watching I’m sure you were into it as well. The game was a tight one, with UNLV controlling the lead for a good majority of the game, then losing that lead in the final minutes and regaining the lead, and win by Quintrell Thomas capitalizing on an airball by Anthony Marshall.
The California Golden Bears were not the chumps we dominated last year at the Thomas and Mack. They were a competitive team who played neck and neck with the Rebels until we finished them off. The Runnin’ Rebels played very good defense against them, and freshman Anthony Bennett showed off on a regular basis during the game, dunking and showing a nice midrange game. The bulk of the scoring was taken up in this game by several players, Anthony Bennett (25 pts, 13 rebs), Bryce Dejean-Jones (22pts) and Anthony Marshall (13 pts, 4 assts, 2 stls).
Obviously, fortunate and unfortunate things happened to two players other than these stat grabbers. Mike Moser, five minutes into the game, dived for a loose ball and a Cal player landed right on his right arm, bending his elbow in a very unnatural way. Medical examination has concluded that the elbow was not fractured, but dislocated. Mike was in a tremendous amount of pain proximate to the time of injury. Preliminary indications are that he may be out 3-6 weeks, hopefully its shorter than longer, and hopefully his hip flexor issue is worked out by then as well. In the fortunate category, Quintrell Thomas was in the game largely due to Mike Mosers’ being on the bench, and perhaps also because Bryce Dejean-Jones fouled out. Quintrell made the game winning shot on a putback. Great moment for Quintrell and the Rebels to win that way on the road.
One thing that was obvious to the eye, was that the Rebels, as a team, seemed to want this victory much more than Cal did. They maybe had 1-2 players of a similar mindset willing to win by any means necessary. That doesn’t translate into the stats, but its as plain as day. Nice win against one of the better teams in the Pac-12. Certainly doesn’t make up for the home loss against Oregon, but Oregon is now on the verge of being in the top-25 (first team out). Today’s rankings have UNLV #20/17 (AP/Coaches), unfortunately see-sawed with MWC foes New Mexico (17/20) and behind San Diego State (18/15)
The next contest will be against D-III Laverne back in town, but in the Orleans. It should be a nice break and should get some of the bench players more minutes. Then, all indications are that Khem Birch will join the team for the road game at UTEP (Dec 17), with his first home game at the Mack on December 19th (Northern Iowa).
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