Willis resuscitates Rebels

Something had to change, and UNLV sophomore Tre'Von Willis was quick to make it happen.

"We were dead a little bit," Willis said, summing up another lackluster first half.

But again, the Rebels made a comeback from the dead, erasing a double-digit deficit in the second half and running to a 75-65 victory over Utah on Saturday afternoon at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Willis sparked the uprising by scoring a career-high 22 points, and seniors Wink Adams, Joe Darger, Rene Rougeau and Mareceo Rutledge followed his lead.

UNLV (16-4, 4-2 Mountain West Conference) moved into a tie for first in the league race with Texas Christian, which lost at home Saturday to New Mexico.

"It's one of those things where I love the big games," Willis said. "I felt it was my time to step up. I love challenges. It's like saying, 'You're not going to beat me.' "

Three days after overcoming a 13-point halftime deficit in a win at Brigham Young, the Rebels faced a similar predicament as they trailed the Utes 38-30 at halftime and by 11 points two minutes into the second half.

But Adams, Willis and Rutledge did all of UNLV's scoring in a 23-9 run that suddenly changed the game.

Willis tied his career high with six assists, and he gave one to the crowd of 15,080 for energizing the Rebels during their rally.

"We've been preaching all year that we've got to protect our home court," he said. "In the second half, we came out so fired up and so intense. It was a great atmosphere. The fans kind of gave us our energy, our spark."

Adams, held to two points at halftime, scored UNLV's first eight points of the second half on three mid-range jumpers and two free throws.

Rutledge made a 3-pointer to tie the score at 48, and after a Rutledge steal, Willis hit a jumper. Rutledge's second 3-pointer put the Rebels ahead 53-50 with 11:24 remaining.

"When I'm wide open, I'm going to take that shot. No reason for hesitation at all," said Rutledge, who recorded season highs of nine points and seven rebounds in 15 minutes off the bench.

During UNLV's game-turning surge, Adams had 10 points, Willis seven and Rutledge six.

Kendall Wallace followed by sinking a 3-pointer, and freshman guard Oscar Bellfield drove for a layup over Luke Nevill, Utah's 7-foot-2-inch center. Bellfield added two free throws to make the score 61-53 with 7:25 left, extending the Rebels' run to 31-12.

"It was a big-time battle," said UNLV coach Lon Kruger, who switched to a smaller lineup in the second half by putting Darger inside and surrounding him with four guards.

"Coach is a great mismatch designer," Willis said. "Everybody on that floor could shoot the ball."

Nevill had 14 points and seven rebounds for the Utes (12-7, 3-2). But Darger helped limit Nevill to six points and two rebounds in the second half.

"It was definitely a more effective lineup," Darger said. "Nevill is a big guy, and he's hard to defend. I didn't have any fouls at halftime, so I knew I could be more physical and bump Nevill around a little bit."

Nevill blocked four shots in the first half, but at halftime Kruger encouraged his guards to drive at Nevill more.

"We said we've got to keep getting to the rim," Kruger said. "We got there and were hesitating instead of getting there and exploding and attacking.

"We were much more aggressive to finish. We told Wink we needed him to be a lot more aggressive."

Adams finished with 14 points, including 12 in the second half when the Rebels shot 16-for-29 (55.2 percent). Rougeau also had 14 points, 10 in the first half.

Willis made two 3-pointers late in the first half. He shot 8-for-16 from the field and 4-for-5 on free throws and had only one turnover in 34 minutes as the floor leader.

"Tre'Von can hit shots, and he kept us in the game," Adams said.

Lawrence Borha, Luka Drca and Shaun Green each scored 11 points for Utah, which made 10 3-pointers but committed 18 turnovers.

Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907.

UNLV 75

Utah 65

UTAH Min FG-A FT-A R A PF TP

Drca 30 4-4 0-0 1-7 5 3 11

Borha 33 4-9 0-0 1-5 1 3 11

Grim 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Brown 31 3-10 2-2 1-3 6 2 8

Nevill 31 6-12 2-3 1-7 1 1 14

Kepkay 31 3-10 0-0 0-2 0 2 8

Tillie 6 1-1 0-0 1-1 0 1 2

Green 32 4-7 1-3 0-5 3 3 11

TOTALS 200 25-53 5-8 7-32 16 16 65

Field goals--47.2%. Free throws--62.5%.

Three-point goals--10-16 (Drca 3-3, Borha 3-5, Kepkay 2-4, Green 2-4). Team rebounds--2. Blocked shots--5 (Nevill 4, Grim). Turnovers--18 (Nevill 4, Drca 4, Brown 4, Kepkay 2, Green 2, Grim, Borha). Steals--4 (Green 3, Drca).

UNLV Min FG-A FT-A R A PF TP

Santee 17 0-4 1-4 0-2 1 1 1

Adams 34 6-11 2-4 1-2 4 3 14

Willis 34 8-16 4-5 2-2 6 2 22

Rougeau 28 7-10 0-1 0-5 1 0 14

Darger 29 1-3 2-2 0-6 0 3 4

Rutledge 15 3-3 1-1 2-7 2 0 9

Wallace 13 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 3

Bellfield 21 2-6 2-2 0-1 1 1 6

Massamba 10 0-2 2-2 1-2 0 0 2

TOTALS 201 28-57 14-21 8-30 15 11 75

Field goals--49.1%. Free throws--66.7%.

Three-point goals--5-9 (Rutledge 2-2, Willis 2-2, Wallace 1-2, Bellfield 0-1, Darger 0-2) Team rebounds--3. Blocked shots--4 (Rougeau 2, Darger 2). Turnovers--9 (Bellfield 3, Adams 3, Massamba, Rougeau, Willis). Steals--12 (Willis 3, Santee 2, Rutledge 2, Bellfield 2, Darger, Rougeau, Adams).

A--15,080. Officials--Mark Reischling, Dan Chrisman, Newton Chelette. Technical fouls--None.

Utah 38 27 -- 65

UNLV 30 45 -- 75