UNLV Runnin' Rebels Upset At Home By Montana Grizzlies For Second Loss Of The Season

The UNLV Runnin' Rebels men's basketball team suffered their second loss of the season on Tuesday night on their home court at the Thomas & Mack Center. They fell to the Montana Grizzlies, who won the game 102 - 93. While the offense looked good, posting 93 points, the defense is what let them down. After the tough loss, Rebels head coach Josh Pastner spoke about the loss, the poor defense, and having to keep improving.

"When you score 93 points you've got to win the game," Pastner said. "I was really disappointed with what we did defensively. We were trying different things. We'll get better. That's our only option. It's a long season and we have a lot of games left. We have to get better all the way throughout November. Obviously, there were some things today we didn't get better at from Saturday, so we have to course-correct that. But we will continue to improve so that when we get to Mountain West play in mid-December, we are playing our best basketball at that point in the season."

Things really fell apart for the Rebels in the second half. After starting the second half down just 47 - 45, the Grizzlies started the second half on a 10 - 0 run. Montana eventually built a 15-point lead and never looked back. UNLV was never able to get closer than down by nine after falling 15 points down. The Rebels had no answers for the Montana offense; they allowed the Grizzlies to shoot 58.6% in the second half of the game and 55.4% for the entirety of the game. Junior guard Money Williams led the way for Montana, scoring 30 points and dishing out eight assists. The Rebs did not have an answer for him on Tuesday night.

The top player for the Rebels was guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn. He scored 26 points in the loss and dished out six assists with two rebounds, a steal, and a block. Forward Tyrin Jones led the way in rebounding with seven boards, while Kimani Hamilton impressed, scoring 16 points on 70% shooting. However, the team's shortcomings in this game don't necessarily show up in the box score. They were beat up down low and need to find a presence in the paint if they are going to get to where they are trying to go this season.

More UNLV Rebels On SI News