Adams sticks it to Aztecs

Either way, his shooting touch is staying warm enough to carry the Rebels to victory.

Despite an injured right index finger that he said was numb, Adams scored a game-high 23 points as UNLV defeated San Diego State 68-58 on Tuesday night before 13,036 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

"It was a big-time game," Adams said. "We put it all on the line.

"It feels great to win the game and be in the race for first place."

Moments later, as Adams watched on TV, Brigham Young finished off a 70-69 overtime victory at New Mexico, putting the Cougars in the driver’s seat in the Mountain West Conference chase.

The Rebels (21-6, 10-3 MWC) remained in second place, one game behind BYU (22-6, 11-2) with three regular-season games to go.

The Cougars face a relatively easy road to the title, as they must play Air Force and Wyoming at home and Texas Christian on the road.

The schedule is tougher for UNLV, which next plays Saturday at home against TCU before going to New Mexico on Tuesday and finishing at home against Utah on March 8.

"Every one is a big one," Rebels coach Lon Kruger said. "We’ll play every one like it’s the most important one left."

Adams topped 20 points for the fifth time in the past eight games. He shot 8-for-19 from the field and made 5 of 8 free throws, despite having little use of his right thumb and index finger. The latter was wrapped with tape.

"It has been sore for about two weeks," said Adams, who thinks his finger is sprained or fractured. "It’s really affecting my shot and my dribbling. I’ve got to shoot with three fingers."

Adams was injured and junior forward Joe Darger was ill with the flu. But Darger hit two key 3-pointers to help hold off the Aztecs (18-10, 8-6).

Darger’s 3-pointer stretched UNLV’s lead to 54-47 with six minutes left. After a steal and layup by the Rebels’ Rene Rougeau and a 19-foot jumper by the Aztecs’ Lorrenzo Wade, Darger drilled another 3 to make it 59-49 with 5:33 remaining.

"My teammates did a great job of finding me in transition, and I was able to knock some shots down," said Darger, coughing and losing his voice after being sick for a week.

Darger finished with 13 points, 11 in the second half.

UNLV trailed 33-31 at halftime while shooting 1-for-9 on 3-pointers. In the second half, the Rebels shot 4-for-10 from 3-point range.

"They were just knocking down 3-pointers in the second half. It was night and day," Wade said. "Darger got going a little bit. That right there was what won the game for them."

Wade, a junior guard who prepped at Cheyenne High School, led San Diego State with 21 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

Aztecs forward Billy White, a freshman from Green Valley High, had nine points and six rebounds before fouling out with 2:09 left.

"It was very frustrating. I picked up some silly fouls," White said. "Lorrenzo had an incredible game to try to bring us back."

UNLV opened the second half with an 11-2 run as Darger scored five points and senior guard Curtis Terry had four.

Rougeau made a short jumper, and Adams stole the inbounds pass and scored on a layup to put the Rebels up 50-43 at the 10:07 mark.

Adams scored 12 points in the first half, including eight straight for UNLV during one stretch. Rougeau scored six points in each half and also finished with nine rebounds.

"It started on the defensive end," Kruger said of his team’s second-half surge. "We got some stops and went down and made some shots."

Contact reporter Matt Youmans as myoumans@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2907.