UNLV posts sloppy win

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Nov. 25, 2002 | 10:07 a.m.

Montana to Rice. Aikman to Irvin. Unitas to Berry.

All were famous passing combinations in the NFL. But Charlie Spoonhour's UNLV Rebel basketball squad appears to have the makings of a pretty potent duo, too.

Banks to Hunter.

That combination, which dazzled fans in each of UNLV's two exhibition game victories, came through at a key time again in Sunday night's season-opening 69-54 victory over Portland State before an announced crowd of 10,825.

Portland State had cut an early 12-point Rebel lead to just five points, 45-40, on a layup by center Seth Scott with 10:47 to go and had the ball.

But UNLV forward Dalron Johnson came through with one of his six blocks in the game and the ball went to point guard Marcus Banks.

After crossing midcourt, Banks made a perfect alley-oop pass above the basket for Georgetown transfer Demetrius Hunter, who went high above the rim to grab the ball and dunk it.

The crowd at the Thomas & Mack, which had been lulled to boredom by the at-times sloppy and ragged play, suddenly came to life. And so did the Rebels.

UNLV went on a 13-3 spurt over the next 4 1/2 minutes to break open the game and win going away.

"It's like a quarterback throwing a touchdown pass," Banks said of the play. "That's exactly what it's like. And it gives some enthusiasm to the whole team."

"I think that play was definitely a momentum booster for us," Hunter said. "When we play defense and get out and run, we can do things like that. We need to play that way."

Added Johnson: "When the crowd gets into it like that ... we feed off their energy so much."

Banks and Hunter seemed to have already developed a nice chemistry. The pair combined for several dunks in each of the exhibition games as well with Hunter usually finishing.

"I just tell (Banks) to throw it up and I'll go up and get it," the 6-foot-2 Hunter said.

"Me and D. Hunt have gotten that lob going," Banks said. "Tonight I just put it up there for him and he went up way up there to get it. It was like at the right place at the right time. It hyped the crowd."

It also hyped Spoonhour, who would love to see many more of those kinds of plays this season.

"That's the kind of stuff we'd like to see every play," Spoonhour said. "We've got some capabilities when we do stuff right."

The Rebels (1-0) shot just 38.3 percent from the floor (23-of-60) and held just a 40-39 rebounding edge over the Vikings (1-1). And Johnson struggled through a 5-of-16 shooting night en route to a team-high 19 points.

But Spoonhour wasn't about to throw back a season-opening 15-point victory because it lacked style points.

"Fifteen point victories aren't very easy to come by," he said.

"I think they have a very good basketball team," Tarkanian said while signing autographs on the way out of the arena. "They're playing great defense. They're playing real hard. I think they're going to be very, very good."

The 6-foot-8 Edwards, expected to add some much needed bulk and strength in the middle, quickly found himself on the bench with two fouls in the first nine minutes. He needed just nine seconds after intermission to pick up his third foul and was whistled for his fourth foul with 15:29 to go in the game.

"Yeah, all the fouls were frustrating but that's the way the game goes sometimes," Edwards said.