Sprained knee slows Banks

Steve Addy

Wednesday, March 20, 2002 | 9:57 a.m.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Marcus Banks' psyche was hurting, and so was his knee. The latter had plenty to do with the former Tuesday night.

In the Rebels' final game of the season, their junior point guard played one of his worst. A day after spraining his left knee in practice, he made only 1 of 12 shots and was slowfooted on defense in UNLV's 75-65 loss to South Carolina in the second round of the NIT.

Banks limped around for 30 minutes, but clearly wasn't 100 percent. He lacked his usual fast first step on offense, and Gamecocks guard Aaron Lucas easily raced past him on the other end.

The Mountain West defensive player of the year admitted he didn't look the part. "(The injury) really affected my defense. I couldn't stop anyone. Guys were going around me," Banks said.

He suffered the sprain Monday when he knocked knees with Omari Pearson in a workout at Carolina Coliseum. When he awoke Tuesday and the pain hadn't subsided, he knew something was amiss.

"It stiffened up on me," he said. "I don't want to use it as an excuse for not playing well, but everything I did felt awkward and weird. I just wasn't feeling right. I was losing the ball in situations where I wouldn't normally lose it."

Using the same strategy as San Diego State in the MWC tournament final, South Carolina tried to impede Banks' lane penetration and make him pass. When he didn't give up the ball, he ran into a wall of taller defenders. He had a scoreless first half (0 of 5) and was limited to 10 minutes by two fouls.

Banks played the whole second half and finally made a basket on his last shot, a 3-pointer with 1:46 to go. His five-point total was his second-lowest of the season.