UNLV Has Come Down a Peg, but Not Enough to Help Irvine

Nevada Las Vegas is ranked 16th in the nation and on its way to the NCAA tournament, but the Rebels were without some of their usual aura during a 96-74 victory over UC Irvine in the Bren Center on Thursday night.

After losing to New Mexico State by two points Monday, UNLV (20-5, 13-4) is in second place in the Big West Conference and has lost four conference games in a season for the first time.

Jerry Tarkanian was in the stands, not on the bench, and for a rare occasion, there were plenty of seats for a UNLV appearance.

UNLV allowed the Anteaters to lurk uncomfortably close into the second half, leading only 51-41 with 14:36 to play.

At that point, though, the inevitable happened. An 8-0 run fueled by Dexter Boney’s three-point shot and three-point play on a breakaway layup put UNLV up by 12, and the rout was on.

Boney and Evric Gray scored 23 points, but UNLV was led by J.R. Rider, who finished with 34 points.

The victory gave UNLV its 12th consecutive 20-win season.

Irvine (6-19, 4-13) had expected it might be without leading scorer Jeff Von Lutzow because of a foot injury. Instead, Von Lutzow played after making surprising progress overnight, but the team was without second-leading scorer Keith Stewart. Stewart was suspended for the second time in two weeks because of a situation affecting his academic eligibility.