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Utah State shoots past UNLV, 85-78

Updated January 6, 2018 - 11:36 pm

UNLV found itself down 10 points at halftime before fighting back with an energetic Thomas & Mack crowd behind them.

The Rebels nearly pulled off the comeback victory, but it went down as a loss and a bad one at that, falling 85-78 to Utah State.

It was Utah State’s first road victory of the basketball season, and it was the first time since 1996 the Aggies have beaten UNLV at home.

“Not winning at home is a painful thing for a coach, the staff, hopefully the players as well,” UNLV coach Marvin Menzies said.

UNLV (12-4, 1-2 Mountain West) has not played well to open conference play, and is one Mbacke Diong free throw from losing to San Jose State. The Rebels next play at Air Force on Wednesday.

“It’s hard losing, but it’s a learning experience,” UNLV forward Brandon McCoy said. “I feel like the atmosphere in the locker room is still going to be the same. We’ve got a tough road game ahead of us. I feel like we’ve still got a chance to do some big things this year. We just hit a couple of speed bumps.”

Utah State (10-7, 3-1) took the lead for good on Sam Merrill’s 3-pointer with 1:42 left, giving the Aggies a 79-78 lead. Teammate Koby McEwen followed with another 3-pointer with 52 seconds remaining for a four-point edge.

McCoy led the Rebels with 23 points (on 9-of-11 shooting) and nine rebounds, Jordan Johnson had 16 points and seven assists, Kris Clyburn scored 11 points, and Amauri Hardy finished with 10 points.

McEwen led Utah State with 21 points, and Merrill totaled 20 points and eight rebounds.

“Utah State did a really good job,” Menzies said. “They played really good basketball. I don’t want to take anything away from their effort tonight.

“They earned the win. They deserved the win. Let’s call it what it is. We hate to lose, but they came in and beat us. We didn’t just come in and lose. They came in and beat us, and we’ve got to figure out how to beat them.”

Contact Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.

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