RENO, Nev. - Despite shooting 47.6 percent from the field and outscoring UNLV 35-25 in the second half, the Nevada Men's Basketball team came up short against UNLV Saturday evening, falling to the Rebels by a final score of 69-67.

Following the loss, Nevada owns an overall record of 22-9 and a mark of 12-6 in Mountain West play.

Jarod Lucas scored a team-high 23 points on 6-11 shooting from the field and 10-12 at the free throw line, while also matching a career-high by pulling down six rebounds, in addition to dishing out three assists. 

Kenan Blackshear scored 18 points, 16 of which came after the first half, while also pulling down five rebounds and tallying two steals. The senior point guard surpassed the 1,000-point scoring mark for his career in the contest.

Freshman forward Darrion Williams had another outstanding performance on the glass for Nevada, pulling down a team-high 12 rebounds throughout the game. Williams also scored six points, dished out a game-high five assists, and recorded one steal.

Redshirt freshman Nick Davidson was immaculate off the bench for Nevada, scoring eight points, pulling down 10 rebounds, and tallying a team-high two blocks in just 19 minutes of game time. Davidson finished the contest with a game-high plus/minus of +16.

First Half

Nevada struggled to begin the contest while UNLV came out firing, knocking down their first four shots of the game and building a 13-0 lead over the Pack at the 16:34 mark.

Nevada responded in a big way, reeling off a 12-0 run of their own to trim the deficit to just one point with 12:35 left in the first half.

Nevada took their first lead of the game just over two and a half minutes later, as Davidson finished a layup in the paint off a Daniel Foster assist, giving the Pack a 17-15 advantage.

UNLV hit a 3-pointer 54 seconds later to recapture the lead, as Nevada trailed 17-18 with 8:56 left until halftime.

The Pack struggled down the stretch of the first half, as they were outscored by UNLV 13-4 over the remainder of the period and entered halftime trailing the Rebels 21-31. 

Second Half

Lucas drilled a mid-range jumper on Nevada's first possession of the second half to trim UNLV's lead to eight points; however, the Rebels scored back-to-back buckets to take a 12-point advantage with 18:40 left in the game. 

Facing their largest deficit of the game, Nevada found an answer, putting together a 12-0 run over the next 3:46 to tie the game at 35 points apiece. 

Blackshear fueled the huge Pack run, scoring seven points over the stretch, including a massive and-one dunk to surpass the 1,000-point scoring mark of his career. 

UNLV reeled off a quick 5-1 run to take a 40-36 lead over the Pack with 13:39 remaining; but, Nevada responded once again, putting together a 7-0 run to take a 43-40 lead over the Rebels.

The Pack outscored UNLV 11-6 over the next seven and a half minutes, building a 54-46 lead with just 2:28 remaining in the contest.

The Rebels managed to tie the game up with 10 seconds left; and, Blackshear got a decent look at the buzzer that came up just short, as the two teams headed to overtime tied 56-56.

Overtime

The two squads went back-and-forth over four minutes of overtime, with neither team holding more than a two-point lead. 

With the Pack trailing by two points with under a minute to go, Blackshear drilled a huge 3-pointer to give Nevada a one-point lead with 55 seconds left.

UNLV hit a 3-pointer of their own on the other end to retake the lead with 43 seconds left, and they managed to hold on over the final stretch of the game, as Nevada fell in their regular-season finale.

Notable Stats:

• Nevada outscored UNLV in the paint, 26-24.

• The Pack scored 16 points off 12 UNLV turnovers.

• After pulling down a team-high 12 rebounds, Darrion Williams has now led Nevada in rebounding in 18 of 31 games this season.

• Nevada held UNLV to 36.1 percent shooting from the field. 

Up Next

Nevada will head to Las Vegas for the Mountain West Tournament this coming week. The Pack will enter the conference tournament as the #4 seed and will face San Jose State Thursday at 2:30pm.

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