UNLV shows new life by routing CSU

Steve Guiremand

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

Yes, the UNLV Rebel basketball team still has a pulse. And, for one night anyway, a heart.

Just 48 hours after appearing disjointed, uninterested and totally out of sync in a 90-80 whipping by Wyoming, the Rebels bounced back with a dominating 90-57 victory over Colorado State before an announced crowd of 10,656 on Monday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Led by senior point guard Marcus Banks (31 points, 8 steals, 7 assists) and energetic first-time starter James Peters (15 points, 2 steals) at forward, the Rebels (13-6 overall, 2-4 Mountain West Conference) finally displayed the kind of intensity, talent and teamwork that was expected to help them battle Wyoming, Utah and BYU for the conference title.

So what happened in two days to turn things around so dramatically?

"We were in a pretty desperate situation," UNLV coach Charlie Spoonhour said. "We were in one of those deals where it was fish or cut bait."

And thanks to an at-times suffocating defense -- the Rebels finished with 18 steals and forced 28 turnovers -- UNLV finally came up with a big-time performance it needed in the worst way.

Colorado State (14-6, 3-2), which entered the game leading the MWC in scoring (78.4 ppg) and field goal percentage (51.7 percent), was held to just 24 points in the first half and scored just 45 points in the first 35 minutes before Spoonhour emptied his bench. The Rams shot just 38.1 percent (8 of 21) from the floor in the first half and 43.2 percent for the game.

"We were real greedy on defense," said senior forward Dalron Johnson, who had three blocks to go along with 12 points. "They still got some open shots, but we made sure that they were limited. And we had good help defense on their drives to the basket."

"Eighteen steals?" Spoonhour said. "I can't remember having a team getting that many, especially against a good team like Colorado State."

One key reason for that was the play of Banks, who seemed to have been holding back defensively in recent weeks, in great part to cut down on early foul problems.

"He just decided tonight he was going to go out and play," Spoonhour said. "That was quite an exhibition I thought."

Banks even had an assist to himself, bouncing an inbounds pass under the UNLV basket off the back of Colorado State center Matt Nelson to himself for a layup and foul.

"I got that from Scottie Pippen," Banks said. "He did that in the (NBA) Finals. Those guys turn back and I'm going to do it every time."

But perhaps the most important aspect of Monday night's victory occurred before the first tip.

During pregame introductions, none of the Rebels ran out to center court when their names were called, instead huddling with their teammates in front of the bench and then walking out to midcourt en masse after the final starter was introduced.

"That was a little bit of our new team unity," Johnson said.

"When they introduced the starting lineups, we put our hands up and stayed together as a family," Banks said. "That's the way we started and that's the way we're going to finish this.

"Every team has trials and tribulations," Banks continued. "Basketball is still basketball, though. Everything else you have to leave outside the court. We're a family and we've got to act that way."

And Monday night, UNLV's basketball team was one big happy family for a change.