Rebels roll to fourth straight exhibition win in Australia
The UNLV basketball team reeled off its fourth consecutive Australia exhibition victory Tuesday, pounding the South West Metro Pirates 97-55 in Brisbane.
Kendall Wallace scored 25 points to lead five Rebels in double figures.
UNLV completes its six-game tour Down Under today against the Cairns Marlins in Cairns and returns to Las Vegas on Saturday.
The Rebels hit 12 of 19 3-pointers in the first half, with Wallace shooting 6-for-8 from beyond the arc, and built a 54-22 halftime lead.
"My teammates are confident in me and kept feeding me the ball, and I just kept trying to knock down the shots," Wallace said. "Our pressure defense really got them out of rhythm, and once we started going, it was over from there."
Wink Adams had 15 points, 13 in the first quarter, Rene Rougeau and Tre’Von Willis scored 13 each and Mareceo Rutledge had 12 points and 11 rebounds for UNLV. Beas Hamga had 10 rebounds.
The Rebels led 36-10 after the first quarter. UNLV made a 25-2 run in the first period, sparked by an 8-for-13 effort from 3-point range.
"Our intensity and pressure defensively is probably something that they are not as used to as teams are in the United States," coach Lon Kruger said.
The Rebels’ biggest lead was 97-52, when Scott Hoffman hit a long jumper with 20 seconds left.
UNLV finished 16-for-34 (43 percent) from 3-point range.
Jason Cameron scored a team-high 14 points for South West Metro, which hit 15 3-pointers but shot 33 percent from behind the arc.
"We continue to make progress every night we play," Kruger said. "I told our guys at halftime that we only have a game and a half to play until November, so let’s not give away any minutes, focus like the score is 0-0 and just work on getting better. Our guys have done that."