Rebels cruise past Pittsburg State

UNLV overcame some sloppy moments early in the game to roll to a 91-52 victory over Division II Pittsburg State in the season-opening game at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday night.

Tre’Von Willis had a game-high 17 points, including 7-for-7 from the free-throw line, for the Rebels. Kendall Wallace went 4 of 5 from the 3-point line and finished with 16 points for UNLV. Chace Stanback had nine rebounds and five steals to go along with his six points.

The Rebels trailed by as many as five points in the first half, but forced 28 turnovers as they pulled away.

Coach Lon Kruger also pointed to the fact his team had 19 assists on 24 field goals as a positive sign.

“(That’s) always a number you’ll take,” he said.

UNLV had 11 players get at least 11 minutes of action in the opener. Two freshmen had a significant impact in their debuts.

Justin Hawkins had 11 points and three rebounds in 21 minutes of action. He also shot a team-high 10 free throws, making six of them. Anthony Marshall had six points, three rebounds and three assists.

“They’ve been doing an outstanding job all the way through preseason practice,” Kruger said of the rookies. “Obviously, they were coached very well in high school and have a good feel and understanding for what it takes to be effective.”

Putting it in perspective

UNLV is not going to be able to score 91 points every night.

In fact, it took a whopping 52 free-throw attempts to help the Rebels reach that number on Saturday night.

Tre’Von Willis hopes the team can make it a habit.

“If we put 91 points up every night, we’re going to be a very tough team to beat,” he said after the game.

They won’t, but he’s right.

Also, most NFL teams that score 50 points tomorrow will probably do pretty well, too.

Looking ahead

UNLV will take on arch-rival UNR on Wednesday night.

It should present the Rebels with a stiffer early-season test.

“They’re good. Tough,” Kruger said. “It will be a great crowd. I’ve really been impressed in my five years how hard those games have been fought and the sportsmanship has been good.”

Apparently, he hasn’t had bottles thrown at his head up there like former football coach John Robinson did in 2003.

At least this year, the game will be in the south.

Post presence

After combining for just four rebounds in the exhibition game against Washburn, Darris Santee and Brice Massamba pulled down a total of seven on Saturday night.

Most of those belonged to Santee.

While both players had nine points, Santee had six rebounds to just one for Massamba.

“Much better activity out of the big guys. (We had) a few more rebounds out of the big guys,“ Kruger said. “We need that.”

Free-throw frenzy

Kruger said a big reason UNLV went to the free-throw line 52 times on Saturday night was that the team got more aggressive.

“We were attacking a lot more tonight. I thought we were tentative on Tuesday,“ he said. “We saw that on tape. I thought we did a good job attacking the seams tonight, either resulting in free throws or a defender coming over to help out (and freeing someone else).”

Comparing opponents

UNLV’s first two opponents, one in the exhibition and one to open the regular season, have a few things in common.

Washburn and Pittsburg State are both located in Kansas and both compete in the Mid America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.

If the results of the two games are any indication, Pittsburg State will be looking up at Washburn in the standings.

Washburn lost by just 10 points in the exhibition on Tuesday.

Pittsburg State has already played exhibitions against two other Division I schools and if those numbers mean anything, UNLV will be somewhere between Kansas and Kansas State.

The Gorillas lost to the No. 1 Jayhawks by 58, but only lost to the Wildcats by 36.

Of course, comparison scoring means nothing. It’s just all you really have to go on this early in the season.