Rebels overtake Cougars

February 8, 2010 by Noam Amir-Brownstein 

UNLV beats BYU in front of capacity crowd at Thomas & Mack

The UNLV Runnin’ Rebels played in their first sellout of the conference season and did not disappoint, as they jumped out to an early lead and hung on to take down the No. 12 BYU Cougars (22-3, 7-2), 88-74, on Saturday.

The Runnin’ Rebels (19-4, 7-2 Mountain West) came out firing three-pointers. UNLV shot 9 of 13 from beyond the arc in the first half.

The Rebels jumped to a 15-2 lead with 14:33 left in the half.

The Rebels extended that lead to 29 points, 47-18, with 5:05 left in the half, but that lead was cut down to 18 thanks to some outside shooting from Jonathan Tavernari and Jimmer Fredette, who had 8 and 13 points, respectively.

The Cougars were able to keep it close in the first half because of free throws, as they went 12 for 12.

The second half saw the Rebels keep the lead in double digits throughout, twice bringing the lead back to the 22-point halftime margin but never increasing it.

“Guys really came out sharp and executed things very well, and made shots, a good combination especially against a ball club with the caliber of BYU,” head coach Lon Kruger said. “They’re terrific and always play hard and play great… so that makes the first half even more satisfying.”

Tre’Von Willis led UNLV in scoring. He had 21 first half points and ended with a career-high of 33. He also dished out a game high 8 assists and pulled down 5 rebounds.

Chace Stanback led the Rebels on the boards pulling down a career-high 14 rebounds.

“I definitely wanted to set a tone for our team and get them off to a fast start,” Willis said.

The Rebels had 24 assists to the Cougars 12 and also won the battles in turnovers, blocks, steals and rebounds.

All ten Rebels who played scored and three players reached double figures, including Matt Shaw, who provided a spark off the bench with 13 points and went 3 of 4 from the three-point line.

“We just try and come out and play as hard as we can,” Shaw said. “The thing we’re trying to do more is play 40 minutes, the entire 40 minutes, better possessions each time.”

The Rebels, who were coming off two strong defensive efforts, allowed BYU to score 13 points more than their season average.

The sellout crowd was loud throughout and helped propel their Rebels to the victory.

“The crowd is always great, especially in games like this. The crowd comes out and shows a lot of support and are loud the whole game,” Shaw said. “We really appreciate it and they help us out a lot [providing us with momentum].”

“Good win. Great, great, crowd. Now we got to turn our attention to getting ready for another really good team coming in here on Wednesday,” Kruger said.

UNLV’s next game is against the 15th/23rd-ranked New Mexico Lobos (21-3, 7-2) at the Thomas & Mack. The Lobos have only two conference losses and one of those came at the hands of the Rebels, who are the only team to win at The Pit this season.

In the last game against New Mexico, Kendall Wallace went for a career-high 21 points, as he hit 7 three-pointers on 10 attempts.

The Lobos are the only other team in the conference to defeat BYU and look to avenge their home loss. They are averaging almost the same statistics as the Rebels recording 77.5 points for and 66.3 against, while the Rebels are scoring 76 and allowing 65.3.

The Lobos are led in scoring, rebounding and assists by Darington Hobson who is averaging 15.0, 8.3 and 4.2, respectively.

The Rebels are led in scoring by Willis and his 17.2 points a game while Stanback’s 5.4 rebounds are a team best.

The Rebels and the Lobos are tied for the conference lead with BYU, as all three are sitting at 7-2.

The Rebels look to keep their five-game winning streak alive, but it will take a lot of effort from both the crowd and team, as New Mexico is riding their own seven-game win streak.