Runnin’ Rebels defeat Washburn 74-56

November 13, 2008 by Jennifer Miller 

Wink Adams scores 27 points in exhibition match

With the help of a late scoring surge, the men’s basketball team won their exhibition game against Division-II Washburn, 74-56, Tuesday at the Thomas & Mack.

Wink Adams scored 27 points, 12 of which came in the second half. Adams came alive when the Rebels made an 18-5 run to seal the win.

The first half scoring ended low, 26-22, as UNLV went into the locker room to work out the kinks. The Rebels missed a multitude of field goal attempts and had a massive 22 turnovers in the opening period.

“We were a little sloppy with the ball; 22 turnovers is more than half of what we expect. But this was a great learning experience for us,” head coach Lon Kruger said after the game.

The Rebels came together in the second half, opening with a 12-0 run in the first five minutes. The Ichabods responeded, and went on a run of their own closing the gap to 53-51 on Paul Byers’ 3-point shot with 6:40 remaining. 

Then Adams took over. 

He hit consecutive 3-pointers of his own to ignite the decisive final run of the game as UNLV outscored Washburn 14-2 before time expired.

Eleven players were put into the rotation for the exhibition game, which is one more player than the team had on the entire active roster all last season.

Kruger said he was trying out different combinations before the first regular season game at home on Saturday against San Diego. One of the unexpected decisions put starting freshman guard Oscar Bellfield ahead of sophomore Tre’von Willis.

“[Bellfield] and [Willis] have been going back and forth all fall, and both have done a good job,” Kruger said. “I thought [Willis] came in and really gave us some energy off the bench. We’re going to need some of that from someone, and [Willis] is a good candidate to do that.”

Willis was the second leading UNLV scorer with nine points. He also finished with a team high of four assists. Mo Rutledge and Kendall Wallace had seven points and freshman Brice Massamba finished with six points in the six minutes of play time.

René Rougeau was consistent in all elements of the game, racking up five points, four steals, three blocks and a team high  of eight rebounds.

Kruger said he knows what they need to work on now.

“We need to be more aggressive,” Kruger said.  “We need to improve on that and be stronger. All five guys are going to need to contribute for us to be successful.”