Rebels hope to have SDSU’s number

Steve Guiremand

Monday, March 10, 2003 | 9:57 a.m.

UNLV has defeated San Diego State by 15 and 11 points in their two meetings this season, including a 83-72 Senior Day victory on Saturday afternoon at the Thomas & Mack Center.

But Rebels players said that just makes Thursday night's Mountain West Conference Tournament opener against the Aztecs that much tougher.

"Yeah, it is scary," senior forward Dalron Johnson said after scoring a game-high 25 points to go along with three steals and three assists in Saturday's win.

"Last year we beat them twice (in conference play) and then ended up meeting them again in the (MWC tournament) championship. And they had our number in that one."

The Aztecs dashed UNLV's NCAA tournament hopes with a 78-75 victory in the MWC finale. The Rebels had to settle for an NIT berth, something that more than likely will happen again if they should drop Thursday night's quarterfinal contest.

"Of course it's going to be dangerous playing them again," point guard Marcus Banks said. "We (didn't) let all of our tricks out of the bag. Of course, (San Diego State) didn't let any tricks out, either.

"We just played back-and-forth basketball and saw who could guard better. We came away with the victory, so we guarded better than they did (Saturday)."

Although disappointed to finish with consecutive losses to UNLV and Colorado State, Steve Fisher's Aztecs (15-12, 6-8) are looking forward to returning to the Thomas & Mack Center on Thursday night with a clean slate.

"If you look back to last year, we lost to UNLV twice and we managed to do what we had to do in the tournament," point guard Deandre Moore said. "And I think the same thing is going to happen. This team has a bunch of tough guys. We'll pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and be ready to go."

Senior guard Tony Bland, who finished with 13 points despite battling an upper respiratory infection, said "We lost to UNLV two times last year and came into the tournament and had a successful tournament. It's all about playing three games in the Mountain West Conference tournament, and we're capable of winning three games.

"We have to give it our best shot and hopefully get three wins."

UNLV coach Charlie Spoonhour, whose team has won six of its past eight games, downplayed the significance of ending the conference season with a victory over a team it will meet again to start the MWC tournament.

"I'm glad that we won, but I'm not too big on keeping momentum for five days," he said. "I think our game (Thursday) will have a little more urgency on both sides."

Still, the victory over the Aztecs didn't do anything to hurt UNLV's confidence.

"We're playing some good ball right now," Johnson said. "Around this time last year we were also on a little win streak, playing good ball going into the tournament. We know we have to try to carry that momentum like we did last year, try to get back into that championship game again, and hopefully come away with a better result this time."