Force to be Beck-oned with

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2003 | 10:11 a.m.

Romel Beck arrived at UNLV from Los Angeles City College known primarily for his shooting talents.

A lanky 6-foot-7 junior, Beck was compared to Reggie Miller by LACC coach Mike Miller for his 3-point shooting ability.

And in the Rebels' 86-67 victory against Montana Tuesday night at the Thomas & Mack Center, Beck certainly more than lived up to that hype by scoring a game-high 24 points, including 4 of 7 on 3-pointers.

But Beck also demonstrated that he is not just a one-dimensional player.

Indeed, it could be argued it was Beck's defense which may have been even more important for the Rebels (8-3) against the Grizzlies (3-8) on Tuesday night.

Beck was credited with three steals, two blocks and three rebounds to go along with his 24 points. He also held Montana star Steve Horne to just three points in the first 24 minutes of action as UNLV methodically pulled away from the Grizzlies.

"I take pride in my defense," Beck said. "Everybody always talks about my scoring and my shooting. But when it comes time to play, I know I can play defense, too."

"He's such a good shooter that sometimes people don't look at his defensive ability," Rebels point guard Jerel Blassingame, who played with Beck for two years at LACC, said. "They just look at his offense. But Romel can defend and do a lot of things. He's a big-time player."

Beck seemed to set the tone for the game early for the Rebels.

After Horne opened the contest with a 3-pointer -- his only basket until the 15:31 mark of the second half -- Beck scored UNLV's first basket a minute later by deflecting a pass away and then driving the length of the court for a layin.

After hitting a long 3-pointer a couple of minutes later to give UNLV its first lead of the game, 7-6, Beck followed up a short time later with another steal and layup. He finished the half with 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting and two steals as UNLV led, 40-33.

"His defending has really improved," UNLV coach Charlie Spoonhour agreed. "You can give credit to the assistant coaches for that because they work with him a lot on that in individual workouts."

Beck was hardly a one-man show on Tuesday night, however.

"He didn't score a point but he still played very well," Spoonhour said.

"What's so nice about this team is you don't have just one player who stands out," Beck said. "We're rolling right now and this was a good victory for us."

The Rebels will take a three-game winning streak with them into 2004.

Guard Demetrius Hunter, bothered by the flu, played just 12 minutes and scored four points. "He was really congested," Spoonhour said. "I wasn't sure if he would even be able to play at all. We almost didn't start him. But it gave (freshman guard) Michael Umeh a chance to play more minutes." Umeh had just four points in 23 minutes of action. ... The Rebels, who made just 23 of 36 free throws (63.9 percent) in Sunday night's 73-55 win over Bradley, rebounded to make 22 of 25 free throws (88 percent) against the Grizzlies.