FORT COLLINS, Colo.—UNLV guard Oscar Bellfield solved his shooting woes just in time to rescue the Rebels.
The junior scored 16 of his 18 points in the second half as UNLV held off Colorado State for a 68-61 win on Saturday night.
Bellfield’s jumper has been so erratic of late—there one game, unreliable the next.
Against the Rams in the final half, his shooting stroke was smooth as he hit four 3-pointers in one of his finest scoring efforts of the season.
His secret?
Instead of dwelling on the first-half misses, Bellfield said he simply, “just let it go and let it flow.”
“I made my first of the second half, and it gave me confidence within myself,” he said. “My teammates had the confidence to create good shots for me, and I made them.”
The Rebels (20-7, 8-5 Mountain West) have won 20 games for a fifth straight season. Even more, they atoned for an earlier 15-point loss to the Rams (18-8, 8-4), a team they may be fighting with for a spot in the NCAA tournament.
UNLV also gained ground on the Rams in the conference standings, pulling to within a half-game for third place.
“There is satisfaction in going on the road into a tough place and beating a good team,” UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. “We really felt good about ourselves and made a lot of plays for each other.”
Tre’Von Willis finished with nine points, sealing the win by hitting two free throws with 15.6 seconds remaining.
This sure beat watching the first meeting between the teams, when a sore right knee kept him out of action.
“I was very determined. We were very determined as a group,” said Willis, who added eight assists. “Embarrassing was probably the word when they came in and beat us. We wanted to see if we could answer that call.”
UNLV’s leading scorer, Chace Stanback, finished 12 points and a tied a season high with 11 rebounds, while Anthony Marshall finished with 16 points.
Andy Ogide had 19 points and Wes Eikmeier 13 for the Rams, whose three-game winning streak ended.
“We’re very disappointed,” said Ogide, who was one of four seniors honored by the Rams on Saturday. “You work hard to get to this point and then you let it roll down your leg.”
It doesn’t get any easier for the Rams as they travel to seventh-ranked BYU on Wednesday. Ogide expects the Rams to show up with even more vigor after this vexing loss.
“I wouldn’t respect us if we didn’t,” said Ogide, whose team had 17 turnovers against the Rebels’ swarming defense. “I know it’s going to fire me up. I hope it fires everyone else up, too.”
With sixth-ranked San Diego State and BYU all but locks to make the NCAA tournament from the conference, and UNLV making a strong push, the Rams know they have plenty more work to do to make the field.
“To get into the NCAA tournament, we thought we would need to win 11 (conference) games. We are at eight,” explained Colorado State coach Tim Miles, who was given a technical late in the game for breaking his clipboard after disagreeing with a call. “We think we can do it and there are four games left—do the math. That means you have to win at BYU, we have to go into Air Force and find ways to win. Those are tough road games.”
Quintrell Thomas gave the Rebels the lead for good, 42-41, on a free throw with 11:27 remaining. Marshall and Willis then combined on a nifty alley-oop play to provide breathing room.
Colorado State cut the lead to one on a drive by Eikmeier, but that was as close as the Rams got in a game that featured eight ties and six lead changes.
UNLV couldn’t find its touch in the first half, shooting just 26 percent from the field. Bellfield especially was off target, hitting just 1 of 8 shots.
But he was a different shooter in the second half.
“He was big for us, hitting 3-pointer after 3-pointer in the second half. He carried us,” Willis said. “We’re a good ball club. But we still feel like we have some work to do to try to make some noise and go as far as we can go.”
