Peters steps up in starting role

Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2003 | 10:27 a.m.

Early in the second half of UNLV's rout over Colorado State on Monday night, a Ram beat James Peters to the rebound of a missed shot by Jermaine Lewis of the Rebels.

A possessed Peters quickly retreated on defense, poached the ball from Colorado State's Brian Greene on the perimeter and then sprinted back to convert a rousing slam dunk.

Peters took that sequence personally.

"Yeah, I did," he said. "I felt I had to make up for it, so I went hard for the next play."

For a change, that could be said by a Rebel other than Marcus Banks as UNLV (13-6, 2-4 Mountain West Conference) never let up in its 90-57 victory over the Rams (14-6, 3-2).

It was a landmark day for Peters, who discovered he would start his first Division-I basketball game when he saw his name high on a locker-room easel three minutes before Monday's tip-off.

He responded with 15 points, on 7-of-9 shooting, in 27 minutes. Peters, who went for 18 at Wisconsin, had averaged 5.5 points this season, and the minutes matched a season high.

When he fouled out of the game with 7:06 remaining and the Rebels ahead 68-43, most of the announced Thomas & Mack Center crowd of 10,656 gave Peters a standing ovation.

The telltale difference Monday arrived when the Rebels showed they would not be satisfied with a mere 11-point lead at halftime. They outscored the Rams 14-8 in the final five minutes of the first half for a 41-24 advantage at the intermission.

Peters ignited that surge with a jumper from the left side and a transition dunk, from a Dalron Johnson feed. He also displayed some flash when he switched the ball from his right to his left hand in mid-air, banking it through the hoop from the left side.

Said Banks, who earned an ovation of his own with 31 points, eight steals and seven assists. "We're pretty much just as good as these teams, if not better. We just have to act that way, and my hat's off to James.

"We got up and down the floor for the first time in four or five games, we were smiling and everyone was having fun. That's a great thing. That's how we get victories around here."

At the half, the UNLV staff was initially dismayed that the Rebels had grabbed only one offensive rebound. Then assistant coach Jay Spoonhour noticed that the Rebels had made 17 of their 23 attempts from the field.

That 73.9-percent success rate is the best for a half in coach Charlie Spoonhour's two-year tenure at UNLV. Peters contributed by making five of his six field-goal attempts in 15 first-half minutes.

"Well, I came out to play, to help the team," Peters said. "I felt I could help down low. We needed baskets down low, so I contributed. When the lead was 11, we extended it because we told each other that it didn't stop there. We had to keep pushing it."

A 6-foot-8, 215-pound native of Chicago who transferred from Butler County (Kan.) Community College, Peters had to play because starting guard Demetrius Hunter is ailing and guard Ernest Turner has been ineffective.

Hunter will meet with a doctor today for a further diagnosis of his Achilles' tendon injury. Spoonhour figured many will think the lineup change, to start "big," had something to do with the Rebels' most impressive victory of the season so far. Wrong, he said.

In his next breath, though, Spoonhour acknowledged the desperate nature of Monday's game, that it was time to "fish or cut bait."

Peters didn't flinch, helping to keep 7-foot Rams center Matt Nelson to eight points (he averages 15.3) and Green to 11 (average 13.5).