Utah stuffs Rebels

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2003 | 9:58 a.m.

0-and-2.

It's not exactly the kind of record the UNLV Rebels had in mind when they began their quest for a possible Mountain West Conference championship last week at BYU. But it's the situation in which they find themselves after losing to Utah, 66-63, on Monday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Despite the unexpected slow start, Charlie Spoonhour's squad isn't ready to throw in the towel quite yet.

"This loss doesn't kill us," Spoonhour said. "What it means is now we go on the road (to Air Force and New Mexico) and things become a lot more immediate.

"If we want to be in the league race hunt, or whatever you want to call it, the worst you can be is 4-3 at the (end of the first half of conference play). If you're any further down, then you better start Plan B. We've got a lot of work ahead of us."

Spoonhour and many of his Mountain West coaching colleagues believe the league champ could have as many as four or even five losses after the 14-game conference grind.

"Coach tells us every day you could have four losses and still win the league," point guard Marcus Banks said. "We're just going to have to dig down real deep. It just depends on how bad we want it. We're not counting ourselves out of the race or nothing because I know how good this team can be."

The Rebels (11-4) have nobody but themselves to blame for Monday night's loss to a 13-4 Utah squad that had upset then No. 1-ranked Alabama a few weeks earlier in Salt Lake City.

UNLV, which sank 23-of-24 free throws in its loss at BYU last Thursday, made just 14-of-24 (58.3 percent) against the Utes. Banks, who finished with a team-high 22 points and carried the Rebels down the stretch, was just 3-of-8 despite shooting 78.5 percent on the season from the line.

"No excuse, but (Monday) was our first day back (practicing) in the Mack," Banks said.

UNLV had been unable to practice on its home court the last week because of an ice show.

"It was like we were on the road, too," Banks said. "It took us a long time to get used to it again. It took Dalron (Johnson) a long time. It took me a long time. The game was real slow and shots weren't falling."

The Rebels went more than 10 minutes at the start of the second half with just one field goal. Part of the problem was poor shot selection. The other was just good Utah defense. The Utes are ninth in the nation in scoring defense.

And after outrebounding Utah, 20-16, in the first half, the Rebels got hammered on the boards, 21-14, after intermission.

Toss in a missed layup by Banks and a missed dunk by center J.K. Edwards, both in the final three minutes, and it was remarkable that UNLV even had a chance to win it at the end. But it did.

Banks cut the Utah lead to 65-63 with a free throw with 8.8 seconds left, but missed his second attempt. Still, UNLV got the ball back when Ute forward Britton Johnsen lost the rebound under the basket.

The Rebels were out of timeouts but the strategy seemed pretty obvious to the 12,487 in the crowd -- get the ball to Banks and clear out of the way. It had already worked in comeback wins at Nevada-Reno and against SMU earlier this season.

Banks, however, is UNLV's inbounds man on set plays under the basket. He tried to hit Johnson in the corner but he was covered. So he lobbed the ball to the top of the key to Jermaine Lewis.

Although Banks sprinted back on the court and appeared to be open at the side of the key, Lewis, who hit a big 3-pointer about 20 seconds earlier to cut Utah's lead to three points, rushed an off-balance 3-pointer that barely drew iron with three seconds left.

Utah center Tim Frost got the rebound, was fouled, and sank a free throw to seal the game.

"My idea was to shoot a 3-pointer," said Lewis, who finished with 14 points and five rebounds. "If I hit it, I knew we were going to be up. If I miss, I wanted somebody to get the rebound. But it didn't go as planned."

That sums up UNLV's conference season ... so far.

"We've played two exceptional teams," Spoonhour said. "We need to bounce back and be no worse than 4-3 at the turn to still have a shot (at a conference title). This weekend will be very critical for us in that regard."