Terry’s hot hand lifts Rebels
With almost every flick of his right wrist, UNLV senior Curtis Terry lit up the scoreboard. And in no time at all, he turned out the lights on Brigham Young.
A meeting of two of the strongest teams in the Mountain West Conference turned one-sided in a hurry Tuesday night.
Terry made sure of that by scoring 14 of his 21 points in the first half as the Rebels rolled to a 70-41 victory over the Cougars before a crowd of 13,074 at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Less than three minutes into the game, Terry buried the first of his five 3-pointers, and that all but signaled the end for BYU.
"After I got the first one to go down, I was feeling in a rhythm," Terry said. "You can’t explain it. I felt like wherever I let it go, it was going to go in, and I didn’t have any hesitation about it."
Terry’s third 3-pointer put UNLV up 19-5 with 11:10 left in the half. His fourth 3 stretched the Rebels’ lead to 36-13 at the 4:04 mark.
He launched most of his shots from about 25 feet, and said afterward, "For me, it’s just like a layup because I feel comfortable out there."
UNLV, which improved to 13-4 and 2-1 in the Mountain West, posted its largest margin of victory over BYU in 25 series meetings.
"I expected a really good effort," Rebels coach Lon Kruger said. "We played extremely hard and extremely smart."
Junior forward Rene Rougeau finished with 15 points, seven rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots for UNLV, which bounced back from Saturday’s 12-point loss at Air Force.
"The message we sent was definitely saying that we’re going to protect our home court," Rougeau said.
The Rebels shot 10-for-25 from 3-point range, as Terry hit 5 of 8 and sophomore forward Matt Shaw was 2-for-4.
The Cougars (12-5, 1-1) were harassed into shooting 3-for-21 on 3-pointers and committed 19 turnovers with just five assists.
"Our defense dictated things," Terry said.
Trent Plaisted, BYU’s 6-foot-11-inch center, was held to five points — well below his average of 16.6 per game — and shot 1-for-10 on free throws.
Plaisted was defended mostly by 6-7 Joe Darger, with Rougeau and Shaw jumping in to help.
"I thought I could hold my own against him," Darger said. "Plaisted is a great player and a very skilled big guy, but he just couldn’t get it going tonight."
Darger had five points and four rebounds, but what he did defensively allowed the Rebels to defend the Cougars’ perimeter shooters.
"Joe is a coach’s dream," Kruger said. "He does whatever he has to do, and he was banging so much inside."
Jonathan Tavernari, a sophomore from Bishop Gorman High School, shot 1-for-9 and finished with three points. Tavernari struck the first blow of the game for BYU by hitting a 3-pointer from 25 feet, but the Rebels scored the next nine points, and Tavernari was no factor the rest of the game.
Freshman guard Kendall Wallace made a 3-pointer with seven minutes left in the half to extend UNLV’s lead to 26-9.
Rougeau’s steal and layup made the score 33-12 two minutes later. At that point, the Cougars had 10 turnovers and the Rebels held a 17-0 advantage in points off turnovers.
Lee Cummard scored 11 points for BYU, which was held to its lowest point total in the series against UNLV.
"We expected this game to be a lot more competitive," Cougars coach Dave Rose said. "They were just really physical."
What made the Rebels’ dominance more impressive was that their leading scorer, junior guard Wink Adams, shot 0-for-5 from the field and had just five points.
But Terry picked up his scoring to propel the Rebels.
"For the most part, Curtis always shoots with a lot of confidence," Kruger said. "He made some shots that were deep."
Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2907.
UNLV 70
Brigham Young 41
BYU Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Tavernari 26 1-9 0-0 1-3 0 2 3
Plaisted 23 2-3 1-10 1-6 0 1 5
Burgess 25 0-5 2-2 0-4 2 5 2
Murdock 32 2-5 2-2 0-1 2 2 6
Cummard 33 4-9 2-2 2-5 0 3 11
Loyd 8 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 2 0
Rose 3 1-1 0-0 1-1 0 2 2
Martineau 5 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Fredette 10 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 3
Collinsworth 18 0-3 0-0 1-11 0 0 0
Miles 17 4-7 1-4 0-1 0 1 9
TOTALS 200 15-45 8-20 6-35 5 20 41
Field goals–33.3%. Free throws–40%.
3-point Goals–3-21, .143 (Fredette 1-2, Cummard 1-4, Tavernari 1-5, Collinsworth 0-2, Murdock 0-3, Burgess 0-5). Team Rebounds–3. Blocked Shots–2 (Tavernari, Plaisted). Turnovers–19 (Cummard 4, Murdock 3, Tavernari 3, Collinsworth 2, Fredette 2, Burgess, Martineau, Loyd, Plaisted, Miles). Steals–3 (Tavernari 2, Murdock).
UNLV Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS
Bailey 17 2-6 0-0 1-4 2 3 4
Darger 27 1-7 2-3 1-4 2 4 5
Adams 28 0-5 5-7 0-3 1 2 5
Rougeau 35 7-11 1-2 1-7 2 3 15
Terry 33 7-12 2-2 1-4 3 1 21
Rutledge 16 1-3 2-3 1-2 1 1 4
Wallace 12 2-4 0-0 1-1 1 0 5
Cage 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Lawrence 15 1-2 1-2 0-3 1 0 4
Shaw 17 2-7 1-2 2-8 3 5 7
TOTALS 200 23-57 14-21 8-38 16 19 70
Field goals–40.4%. Free throws–66.7%.
3-point Goals–10-25, .400 (Terry 5-8, Shaw 2-4, Lawrence 1-1, Wallace 1-3, Darger 1-5, Bailey 0-1, Rutledge 0-1, Adams 0-2). Team Rebounds–2. Blocked Shots–3 (Rougeau 3). Turnovers–8 (Shaw 2, Terry 2, Lawrence, Rutledge, Rougeau, Bailey). Steals–9 (Rougeau 3, Adams 2, Rutledge 2, Shaw, Bailey).
A–13,074. Officials–Scott Thornley, Randy McCall, Tom O’Neill. Technical fouls–None
Brigham Young 21 20 — 41
UNLV 39 31 — 70