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Clutch steal seals deal in UNLV's win over Aztecs
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Jason Bean/Las Vegas Review-Journal
UNLV guard Anthony Marshall converts a breakaway layup between San Diego State guards Chase Tapley (22) and James Rahon (11) on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center. The basket, with 37 seconds left, put the 14th-ranked Rebels ahead 64-63 in their 65-63 win over the No. 13 Aztecs. » Buy this photo
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UNLV guard Justin Hawkins secures an offensive rebound between San Diego State guards James Rahon (11) and Jamaal Franklin with 10.4 seconds left Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center. Hawkins was fouled on the play and made one free throw. He then stole the ball on the Aztecs' ensuing possession to cap the Rebels' 65-63 win. Jason Bean/Las Vegas Review-Journal » Buy this photo
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UNLV forward Mike Moser hangs on the rim after dunking over San Diego State guard Chase Tapley and forward Garrett Green in the second half Saturday. Moser had 19 points and nine rebounds. K.m. Cannon/Las Vegas Review-Journal » Buy this photo
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Updated: Feb. 12, 2012 | 1:07 p.m.
A double-digit lead had disappeared, and UNLV appeared dazed and confused on the offensive end. So it was up to junior guard Justin Hawkins to make a last defensive stand.
"One stop and we win the game," Hawkins said, "and that's what happened."
As San Diego State point guard Xavier Thames crossed half court and set his sights on tying or winning the game, Hawkins cut him off and stole the ball with three seconds remaining to cap a dramatic ending Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Hawkins' offensive rebound and defensive stop in the final 12 seconds lifted the 14th-ranked Rebels to a 65-63 victory over the 13th-ranked Aztecs before an electric sellout crowd of 18,577.
After blowing a 13-point lead with 15 minutes to go, UNLV needed Hawkins' heroics to survive a frantic finish and stop a six-game losing streak in the series.
"What we want to do is put teams away," said sophomore forward Mike Moser, who led the Rebels with 19 points, nine rebounds, six steals and four blocked shots. "We needed our best defensive player to get the game-winning steal, and we didn't want to be in that position."
UNLV (22-4, 6-2) moved up one position to tie San Diego State (20-4, 6-2) and New Mexico atop the Mountain West Conference standings, but the Rebels' climb nearly resulted in a free-fall.
Moser's layup put UNLV up 49-36 five minutes into the second half. But that's when Chase Tapley got hot and shot the Aztecs back into it, scoring 16 of his game-high 22 points in the final 15 minutes.
Playing with a comfortable lead, the Rebels started firing jumpers -- and missing jumpers -- until there was no lead. San Diego State made a spirited charge and went ahead 63-62 on Tapley's 3 from the left wing with 1:30 remaining.
"He's got no fear," Aztecs coach Steve Fisher said of Tapley, who hit 4 of 7 3-pointers. "He can get in a rhythm and make hard shots. When he makes one, and the next one, you better watch out."
With the crowd on edge, Anthony Marshall missed a 3 on UNLV's next possession, and the Aztecs found themselves in control with less than a minute to go.
But Thames was stripped by Moser on a drive into the lane and lost the ball, and Marshall went the other way for a layup to give the Rebels a 64-63 edge with 37 seconds to go.
After a San Diego State timeout, Jamaal Franklin dribbled on the right baseline and backed down Chace Stanback. As Franklin spun to the basket, Stanback swatted the ball away with 15 seconds to play. UNLV gained possession, and Stanback was fouled with 12 seconds left.
Stanback missed the first free throw, but the 6-foot-3-inch Hawkins soared over Franklin to snag the rebound and was fouled with 10.4 seconds on the clock.
"Justin never gives up on any play," Rebels coach Dave Rice said.
Hawkins made the first free throw and missed the second, then made the defensive stop to save the game. Ironically, Rice had a sit-down talk with Hawkins on Monday and told him it was time to regain his defensive swagger.
"He challenged me on the defensive end and said no one should score on me no matter what," Hawkins said. "I was upset that I missed the second free throw, but I knew I couldn't give up on the play."
Up 37-29 at halftime, UNLV built on its lead by feeding Brice Massamba in the low post. The senior center scored the team's first 10 points of the second half. But Massamba's lip was busted and bleeding, and he was forced to the bench at the 13-minute mark.
"It was just easy baskets for me," Massamba said. "But I knew San Diego State is a team that is not going to back down and will keep coming at you."
The Rebels, who hit 1 of 11 3-pointers in the second half, stopped attacking the basket and made only three field goals -- a Stanback jumper, Moser dunk and Marshall layup -- in the last 11 minutes.
"We guard hard," Fisher said. "We kept it a pace that gave us a chance to win."
The Aztecs were foiled by 17 turnovers. The Rebels limited their turnovers to eight, and senior Oscar Bellfield finished with 15 points and six assists.
"It was a situation where we couldn't find a way to make a shot, but we still hung in there," Rice said. "It seems like this becomes the norm when our two teams play that it comes right down to the wire.
"Our guys were tired of answering the questions why we lost six in a row and nine of 10. Every game has been just like this, where it could have gone either way. It's a very, very big win."
Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907.
No. 14 UNLV - 65
No. 13 San Diego State - 63
| SDSU | Min | FG-A | FT-A | R | A | PF | TP |
| Thames | 36 | 3-8 | 1-1 | 6 | 8 | 3 | 8 |
| J Franklin | 34 | 5-12 | 3-4 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 15 |
| Rahon | 37 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Shelton | 24 | 2-3 | 1-4 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Tapley | 32 | 9-16 | 0-0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 22 |
| L Franklin | 8 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Green | 15 | 2-3 | 1-2 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 5 |
| Stephens | 14 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| TOTALS | 200 | 25-51 | 6-11 | 37 | 12 | 15 | 63 |
| Field goals -- 49.0%. Free throws -- 54.5%. | |||||||
| Three-point goals -- 7-16, .438 (Tapley 4-7, J. Franklin 2-7, Thames 1-2). Team rebounds -- 3. Blocked shots -- 1 (Thames). Turnovers -- 17 (J. Franklin 5, L. Franklin 3, Shelton 3, Thames 2, Stephens, Rahon, Green, Tapley).. Steals -- 3 (Thames 2, J. Franklin). | |||||||
| UNLV | Min | FG-A | FT-A | R | A | PF | TP |
| Bellfield | 35 | 6-12 | 1-1 | 3 | 6 | 0 | 15 |
| Stanback | 26 | 2-8 | 0-1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Massamba | 26 | 6-7 | 0-0 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 12 |
| Marshall | 35 | 2-9 | 1-4 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 5 |
| Moser | 36 | 9-20 | 0-0 | 9 | 2 | 2 | 19 |
| Lopez | 5 | 0-1 | 2-2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Wallace | 3 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Thomas | 9 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Hawkins | 19 | 1-3 | 1-2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Smith | 6 | 0-3 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTALS | 200 | 27-66 | 5-10 | 35 | 21 | 9 | 65 |
| Field goals -- 40.9%. Free throws -- 50.0%. | |||||||
| Three-point goals -- 6-25, .240 (Bellfield 2-6, Wallace 1-1, Hawkins 1-3, Stanback 1-4, Moser 1-5, Smith 0-2, Marshall 0-4). Team rebounds -- 1. Blocked shots -- 9 (Moser 4, Thomas 2, Lopez, Stanback, Hawkins). Turnovers -- 8 (Massamba 2, Lopez 2, Moser, Marshall, Bellfield, Thomas). Steals -- 13 (Moser 6, Bellfield 2, Hawkins 2, Marshall 2, Stanback). | |||||||
| A -- 18,577. Officials -- Randy McCall, Dick Cartmell, Mike Reed. Technical fouls -- None. | |||||||
| San Diego State 29 34 -- 63 UNLV 37 28 -- 65 |
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 and James Rahon (11) on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center. The basket, with 37 seconds left, put the 14th-ranked Rebels ahead 64-63 in their 65-63 win over the No. 13 Aztecs.){kind=link}
 and Jamaal Franklin with 10.4 seconds left Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center. Hawkins was fouled on the play and made one free throw. He then stole the ball on the Aztecs' ensuing possession to cap the Rebels' 65-63 win.){kind=link}
Did anyone say Larry Johnson and Anthony is back. the running rebs are gonna be a final 4 team. improving each game. GO REBS!.
Did anyone check out the New Mexico-Wyoming score? 40-34. What a pigs behind that must have been. this was setting up for a really good finish, until the rim seem to close.
Glad the basketball team has given the juiced in mormons and locals a chance to cheer for something. God knows the football team can't.
@wave11161, Thank you for bringing some sense to the table. I'm an UNLV fan and this back and forth gets old. I don't like SDSU,but I respect them. I don't like Steve Fisher, but I respect him. The fact that this team is ranked after they lost Gay, Leonard, White and Thomas is pretty amazing. This rivalry is a good one and the Mountain West is a tough conference and needs to get more respect. I think UNLV's defense needs to get a little credit. SDSU didn't score after the Tapley 3. I am getting tired of no Stanback. I think he is the key. Mike Moser is going to get his, bit it seems this team flows better when Chace is on. Every game he struggles, they struggle. Tuesday is a big game, and hopefully they don't overlook TCU, which is off a win against Colorado St. This team can play with anybody in the country when they're playing to their potential, which they have, but the inconsistentcy is worrisome. They'll figure it out. Go Rebs!!
Maybe it's time to try something different. Give Jhawk a starting job and then bring in Stanback off the bench.
@lvtemplar....Statistically, except for shooting percentages and rebounds, we absolutely dominated San Diego, particularly on the inside. 9 blocked shots, 13 steals, only 8 turnovers. This one should have been a blow out, yet we won by only 2 points! We shot 41% from the field but if you take out the slam dunks and lay ups, it was really 15 or 20%. Our field goal shooting is and has been abysmal. I saw us pull down three or four offensive boards on one play and still couldn't put the ball in the hoop. Wallace came in and hit his first three. He came in ready to play. We've seen him lite it up when he has a chance to. What did the coach do? He benched him after only 3 minutes. He didn't even have a chance! The good news is, we played about as poorly as we could offensively and we still won. The bad news is, you can't go far in the NCAA playing like that. In fact, I doubt we can win the MWC playing like that. I really enjoy watching UNLV when they play up to or near their potential, win or lose, but in this game they played far from it. Maybe you and I didn't see the same game?
What is with you guys? I am an Aztec Alumni-they are both two very good teams-you guys won this one CONGRATS-as far as the rude Aztec fans and coaches and all that crap-the same went on at our place. So what get over it-Love the Aztecs-and Like the Rebels-win the rest of your games-make the Mountain West look strong! And that Mike Moser Cut Out was over the friggin top!!!
Mike In San Diego
@ John Higley....your entire post is a bunch of bull@#%#.....closet Aztec fan, go away!!!
teams that work hard become lucky
chase had a big defensive play to save the game, and shoots 45 percent from the arc this season, an improvement over last season. one should always remember that these are college kids, and defense is the more important constant.
that being said, feel free to be hard on the incoming recruiting class, those guys are pros. :)