Kansas State vs UNLV Basketball Recap

Talk about pullin' your weight. On Saturday afternoon at Orleans Arena, a Kansas State guard decided to carry a heavy load. In the process, he took down the University of Nevada Las Vegas basketball team.

Jacob Pullen isn't as big a name as Michael Beasley, the man-child who was most centrally responsible for allowing Frank Martin to establish himself as the head coach of Kansas State. With that having been said, Pullen is quickly becoming the reason why Martin's KSU tenure is likely to continue for a few more seasons. The guard hit 10-of-16 field goals, and shot an unconscious 7-of-10 from 3-point range, as the visiting Wildcats strolled into Orleans Arena and whipped the 17th-ranked Rebels on Saturday afternoon.

UNLV was feeling full of itself entering this encounter. After an ugly flameout during the stretch run of last season, a Rebel outfit that missed the NCAA Tournament began the 2009-10 campaign with fresh energy and a renewed outlook. Coach Lon Kruger piloted his pupils to a 7-0 record that included above-average scalps such as Louisville, Arizona (on the road) and Nevada. A win over K-State, a Big 12 contender, would have added to an already-solid non-conference portfolio, thereby enabling UNLV to enter Mountain West Conference competition with a leg up in the chase for an at-large NCAA Tournament berth.

Now, however, Kruger's kids will have to do an extra amount of heavy lifting inside the Mountain West. Their dossier would not be dolled up after this 15-point pounding suffered at the hands of Jacob Pullen and Friends.

What also throws Pullen's performance into sharp relief is the fact that while both teams possessed four double-figure scorers, KSU had the game's only two players with more than 20 points. Pullen led all scorers with 28, while backcourt mate Denis Clemente popped in 22 on 6-of-12 shooting with nine assists, many of them to Pullen. The Pullen-Clemente combo started and ended a decisive 13-0 run early in the second half, which catapulted the visitors to a 67-45 lead and effectively ended the competitive phase of this contest.

Pullen's 3-pointer - with 15:17 remaining - began the surge, and Clemente's triple ended it with 14:04 left in regulation. Up by a solid but still modest cushion of 54-45 when the run began, the men from America's breadbasket had silenced the Sin City crowd less than two minutes later, as they amassed a 22-point bulge. The 15-point final margin was the product of garbage-time buckets by a dispirited Rebel roster that never made an appreciable push in the final 14 minutes.

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By: Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Staff Writer