UNLV Doesn’t Surprise Irvine, It Just Wins Big

It didn’t take long Thursday night for UC Irvine to find out how good defending NCAA champion UNLV is.

Not that the Anteaters didn’t have a clue. Their 117-76 loss in front of a sellout crowd of 5,000 in the Bren Center made them the 12th team in 12 games this season and 23rd in a row to lose to top-ranked Nevada Las Vegas, and they saw an inkling of what their fate would be during a 10-minute UNLV run in the first half. Put the emphasis on run.

UNLV didn’t run away with the game until the second half, when the Rebels turned an 13-point halftime lead into a blowout. The 41-point loss was Irvine’s worst this season, but it didn’t challenge UNLV’s largest margin of victory, which was 50 points over Nevada. The Rebels’ average margin is 31.9 points.

“They’re just magnificent,” Irvine Coach Bill Mulligan said. “I told (UNLV Coach Jerry) Tarkanian just to mail the rest of ‘em in.”

Tarkanian wasn’t overly pleased with the first half.

“It seemed like every open shot, they hit,” he said. But UNLV (12-0, 6-0 in Big West play) turned up the defensive pressure in the second half, and pulled away. Irvine (7-11, 2-4) shot only 24% in the second half.

“We expected it to be a little closer,” Irvine center Ricky Butler said. “We got rattled with their defense.”

Larry Johnson had 25 points and 16 rebounds for UNLV, and he had his double-double by halftime, with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Anderson Hunt added 19 points, Stacey Augmon had 18, and Greg Anthony had 15.

Jeff Herdman scored 18 for Irvine, including five three-point baskets, and Butler scored 15.

Irvine enjoyed a four-point twice in the first minutes, going ahead, 6-2, on back-to-back three-pointers by Dylan Rigdon and Gerald McDonald. The Anteaters also led at 8-4, but then Anthony made the steal that started a 33-10 barrage for UNLV. That gave the Rebels a 37-18 lead.