UNLV Basketball splits with BYU

The Lady Rebels attempt at an upset of BYU fell short Wednesday night. They led by 7 with just over 4 minutes to play and would be out scored 14-2 making the final score 67-62 in favor of BYU. If you saw the final stats you would think that the Lady Rebels would have won the game. They held an edge in shooting percentage (43% to 37%) and rebounds (44-39) but they turned the ball over 20 times which led to 27 BYU points. BYU benefited from a bad nights from India Chaney and Erica Helms, who have be on fire of late. Helms followed up here 23 point game with only 5 against BYU. Jamie Smith led the Lady Rebels in points andrebounds with 17 and 15 respectively. Brittany Halberg and Shamela Hampton had 12 points each. The loss brings the Lady Rebels to 8-10 (1-4) on the year. 

The Runnin’ Rebels had lost their last 2 on the road and have not won in Provo since 2005. After the first half of this game it looked like 2009 wouldn’t be the Rebels year either. The Rebels trailed 43-30 at the half and it looked as if they would go on to be crushed and lose their 3rd on the road. Then Coach Kruger must have given one of his best halftime speeches. The Rebels came out in the 2nd half  and went on a 25-5 run. UNLV held BYUwithout a field goal for 11 minutes. Wink Adams hit a jumper with 2:04 seconds left to put UNLV up 64-58. BYU cut the lead to 3 with 23.8 seconds left but then Lee Cummard got a technical foul for slapping the ball out of Rene Rougeau’s hands while attempting an inbounds pass. Wink hit the tech free throw and Joe Dargerfollowed that up with 2 more. BYU’s Jonathan Tavernari hit a 3 with 10 seconds to go the cut the lead to 73-70. Freshman Oscar Bellfield hit 2 free throws to put the final nail in the coffin. BYU was shooting over 50% at halftime and had a 21-12 rebounding edge. In the 2nd half UNLV held BYU to 25 % shooting andout rebounded the Cougars 25-12. Wink Adams led the Rebels with 22 points and 8 boards. Tre’Von Willis added 13 points and Darris Santee had 11. Rene Rougeau had an off night with only 5 points and 4 boards. UNLV was also helped by 16 points of the bench. The win brings the Rebels to 15-4 (3-2)on the season and puts the losses to TCU andColorado State behind them.

Both the Lady Rebels and the Men will be back on the ourt on Saturday Jan. 24th. The Men host the Utah Utes on Kid’s Day the Thomas and Mack Center. Kid’s Day starts at 11am with the game scheduled to tip-off at 1pm. The game will also be televised on Versus Cox Cable channel 67. The Lady Rebels travel to Salt Lake to play the Lady Utes at 2pm.

Wyoming no match for Rebels

The Lady Rebels started the day off with their W over the Cowgirls. Led by sophomore guard Erica Helms and her 23 points the Lady Rebels broke a 4 game slide. Helms was 8-10 from the field including 4-6 from behind the arc. Shamela Hampton added 11 points and 7 boards as the Lady Rebels dominated the glass holding a +13 rebounding edge. Freshman forward Jaime Smith led the team with 15 boards and Dominique Harris had 8 to go along with her 10 points. The Lady Rebels started the first half strong opening on a 7-0 run. The Lady Rebels had a similar run in the second half to open up an 11 point lead. The Cowgirls answered with a 13-0 run to take a 52-50 lead with 7:12 to play. The teams went back and forth from there until Shannon Oberg’s 3 pointed gave UNLV a 63-60 lead with 2:40 left in the game. The Lady Rebels never looked back from there with the final score 71-64. Improving their record to 8-9 (1-3).

Later that night the men’s team took to the floor against Wyoming as well. The Rebels dominated every facet of the game. They started off hot jumping out to an early 7 point lead. The Cowboys answered back cutting it to 1 then UNLV extended the lead back to 6 with just over 5 minutes played. Wyoming then went on an 11-0 run to take their biggest lead of the game at 19-14 with just under 12 minutes to go in the first half. The Rebels trailed by 4 with under 7 minutes to go in the first half when Wink Adams exploded for 9 straight points to give UNLV a 31-26 lead. They would never look back from there taking a 7 point lead into half time. The Rebels ran away with the game in the second half led by the bench. The Rebels bench out scored Wyoming’s 18-8. UNLV also held a 44-33 rebounding edge over the Cowboys, lead by Joe Darger and Rene Rougeau who had 9 each. Wink led the Rebels with 20 points, 16 of those in the first half. Rene added 14 Tre’Von Willis and Darris Santee were also in double figures with 13 and 10 respectively. Local columnist Ed Graney called out the lack of leadership on the team. It looks like Wink, Rene, and Joe read the Las Vegas Review Journal cause they stepped their game up to keep the conference home winning streak alive. This bring the Rebels’ record to 14-4 (2-2).

Rebel Basketball returns to action on Wed. Jan. 21 with the Lady Rebels hosting BYU with a 7pm tip-off at the Cox Pavilion. The Men’s team travels to hated BYU with the tip-off scheduled for 7pm. The Men’s game can be seen on cox cable 334 The MTN.

Both basketball teams fall to TCU

The Men’s team lost 80-73 @ TCU. The Rebels lost their first game on the road this season. TCU dominated the paint holding a 9 rebound edge and outscoring UNLV 32-14. TCU held a one point lead at the half and came out hot in the second half missing only 8 shots. Once again free throw shooting hurt the Rebels. Wink had a chance to tie the game at 72 inside of 2 minutes remaining and only converted on 1 of 2 free throws. The turning point was the intentional foul called on Rene Rougeau inside of the minute mark. That gave TCU shots and the ball allowing them to pull away. Joe Darger led the Rebels with 15 points with Rougeau and Kendall Wallace adding 12.

The Lady Rebels lost their MWC home opener 66-61. The game opened up last the last two had ended with the Lady Rebels getting beat all over the court and the opponent hitting 3′s. Then the second half came and it looked like and entirely different Lady Rebels squad. Whatever Coach Olivier said at the half worked because they came out hot and strong on D. UNLV cut the 17 point half time lead down to 5 with under 4 minutes to play. Shamela Hampton cut the lead down to 3 with 13 seconds left with 5 straight points. TCU hit 2 free throws with 8 seconds left to put the game away. Shamela Hampton led the Lady Rebels with her 9th double-double of the year 20 points and 14 boards. Jamie Smith also had a double-double 13 points and 11 boards.

Both teams return to action on Wednesday. The men are on the road at Colorado State at 6pm. The Lady Rebels will play at home against Colorado State at 7pm.

espn’s joe lunardi

According to his bracketology UNLV is not in the NCAA tournament. What ever drugs this guy is taking I want some cause it is obvious that he doesn’t know what the hell is going on in the world. In other news the Lady Rebels open their conference season with a loss to the #24 New Mexico Lady Lobos. Dropping their record to 7-7 (0-1). They play again tomorrow at home against TCU at 3pm in the Cox Pavilion. 

Rebels Shafted by pollsters

We beat Louisville and they are somehow still ranked in the Top 25 in both polls. We are only receiving votes in both. 43 votes in th AP poll and only 11 in ESPN’s poll. Making us 35th and tied for 41st respectively. This is BS!!

Rebels open conference play with scare

Tre’Von Willis wanted a chance to step into the spotlight and he got it last night. With Wink still nursing his injury on the bench Tre got the ball late in the game and had a chance to put it away on the foul line. Then he missed 2 out of 4, one of which was an airball. After his second attepmt at closing the game New Mexico had enough time to get a good look from 3 to win. Luckily it was missed and just like at the end of the Louisville game Joe Darger grabbed the rebound to seal the win.

Wink Adams played but did not start and did not score. He played 18 minutes grabbing 2 boards and recording 3 assists. Tre had 15 points to lead the team but was 7-11 from the line. Rougeau and Darger had 9 apiece. DeShawn Mitchell had the play of the game by excuting a perfect poster dunk and got the foul but missed the free throw. Tha game went back and forth for much of the first half seeing the Lobos go to the locker room with a 2 point lead. The Rebels trailed 52-50 with 4:23 to go in the game, and sparked an 8-1 run to take the lead for good and give Tre his chance to seal the game.

UNLV was given trouble by New Mexico big man Daniel Faris. He scored 19 points most of them on easy lay-ups under the basket. This doesn’t bode well from the Rebels as they will have to face Utah’s Luke Nevill who is bigger and better than Faris. We will see what the Rebels do about Nevill come the 24th of this month.

The win extened the Rebels win streak to 8 and the conference home win streak to 25. Next up for UNLV is TCU in Texas on Saturday the 10th at 2:30 pm. The game is to be televised on the Mtn. Cox Cable 334. Also if the Rebels are not ranked someone is smoking crack. They just beat a ranked team and killed Arizona. We will see come tomorrow. 

13-2 (1-0)

Lady Rebels outplayed by Fresno State

The Lady Rebs were run out of the gym by Fresno State, there is just no other way to put it. Fresno out rebounded, out shot, and out hustled. It showed on the score sheet with the final of 65-42. There isn’t really much else to say about those one.

The Lady Rebels hope to turn it around on Jan. 7th @ New Mexico.

Men take cue from women close year with W

Tre’Von Willis stepped in and contributed huge to the Rebels upset victory over Louisville. Rene Rougeau played well yet again as the spark plug for the Rebels.But what really set off the win was the defense. It held Louisville to 30% shooting from the field. That was the key to the game for the Rebels. Their defense caused the turnover that turned into Oscar Bellfield’s game winning lay-up over Samardo Samuels making the final score 56-55.

The Rebels came out hot right at the start of the game with Willis and Bellfield hitting back-to-back 3′s. Then came Rougeau’s fast break dunk that put the Rebels up 10-0. The defense forced the Cardinals to miss their first 11 shots from the field. The Rebels were up by as many as 15 in the first half and held a 32-21 lead. Then the Cardinals came storming back taking their first lead of the game at 48-47 with 4:31 to go in the game. Willis gave UNLV the lead with another 3 making it 51-50. From there the teams traded baskets. Then it was Bellfield’s time to shine. Coach Kruger must have a lot of confidence in Oscar seeing as he is only a freshman and was trusted with the ball in the closing minutes of a game of this magnitude. Louisville had a chance to win the game in the closing seconds but missed a lay-up. Joe Darger grabbed the rebound and no one on the Cardinals decided to foul as the final seconds ticked off closing out the non-conference schedule and year with a win for the Runnin’ Rebels.

Stealing something from Couch P.O.V. let’s see the record in bold 12-2

MWC Preview up next

Lady Rebels end 2008 on high note

On Decmeber 30th, 2008 the Lady Rebels improved thier record to 7-5 and closed out the year with a runaway vicotry over the Utah State Aggies. The Rebels were led by sophomore guard India Chaney and her career-high tying 16 points. She wasn’t alone in helping the Rebels put the game away early, Jamie Smith had 14 and Erica Helms added 13. The defense is what really led the Lady Rebels to victory forcing the Aggies to shoot 31% from the floor. The Lady Rebels also dominated the glass holding a +16 rebounding edge. The Lady Rebels return to the court on Friday Jan. 2nd, 2009 at 7pm against the Fresno State Lady Bulldogs.

Rebels vs. Louisville Pre-game

Today at 3pm PST the UNLV Rebels will be taking on the #18 Louisville Cardinals in Louisville. The Rebels come in on a 6 game winning streak, but could be without leading scorer Wink Adams, who went down with an abdominal injury in the first half of the Rebels 73-60 win over Southern Utah. Adams is a game time decision. The Rebels are looking for sophomore guard Tre’Von Willis to step in if Wink can’t go. The Rebels are also looking to junior forward Darris Santee to hold down the boards.

Louisville comes into the game as a huge favorite. They are undefeated at home this year at 7-0, but they are coming off a loss to Minnesota. Louisville dominated UNLV last year with a 20 point victory at the Thomas and Mack. The Cardinals will look for freshman forward Samardo Samuels to keep up what he has been doing so far this season. The Cardinal front court is one of the reasons they won big last year and is most likely why they are the favorites this time.

We will see how the game plays out here in about 2 and a half hours. Check back later tonight for post-game reviews.