After underwhelming weeks in Las Vegas , Rutgers and UNLV face each other in the final game of the Players Era men’s tournament on Thursday afternoon.
Both teams lost their first two games of the tournament and look to salvage a win before resuming their non-conference schedules.
Rutgers (4-3) has lost its last three games overall after winning its first four of the season. Dylan Grant’s 15.4 points per game lead the Scarlet Knights. Grant is 16 points away from matching his points total from all of last season, 124.
Guard Jamichael Davis scored a career-high 21 points with five 3-pointers Tuesday against Notre Dame. He is shooting 52.6% from 3-point range (10 of 19).
Rutgers has been outrebounded in each of the last three games.
“Guys are getting their feet wet in high-caliber games, and hopefully we learn from it,” Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said. “But we do have to figure out this rebounding thing. This is a problem.”
UNLV (3-4) lost its first two Players Era games to Maryland, 74-67, and No. 8 Alabama, 115-76. The Rebels have only one returning player from last season.
Illinois transfer Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn is the team’s leading scorer at 17.6 points per game.
UNLV has scored 609 points and given up 609 points this season, an average of 87 points per game on both sides. The Rebels are in the midst of five consecutive games away from their home arena, the Thomas & Mack Center, which is hosting the National Finals Rodeo until Dec. 14.
Still, UNLV will have only had to leave the Las Vegas area for one game over that span, playing at Stanford on Dec. 7.
UNLV allowed 64 second-half points to Alabama. The Rebels were without four players due to injury for that game.
“As limited as we are and as small as we are right now, without our front-court guys, it was going to be an uphill battle from the start,” UNLV coach Josh Pastner said. ” … We just don’t have an inside presence right now. Tyrin (Jones) is a freshman playing our (center) spot, and he’s really a (forward). Doing that against an SEC team, one of the best teams in the country, makes it tough. We need to get healthy.”
