Wolf Pack stuns Rebels

Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003 | 9:36 a.m.

UNLV coach Charlie Spoonhour gazed into the eyes of his players Monday night and cringed at what he saw.

It was as if Nevada-Reno were the in-state program with the national championship in its not-so-distant past and cold-blooded confidence in its veins.

"I looked at our guys," Spoonhour said, "and didn't have a good feeling that we were comprehending things."

The Rebels weren't, and they paid for their inefficiency, selfishness and poor shot selection with a 74-62 defeat before an announced crowd of 11,211 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Wolf Pack (2-1) won for only the fifth time in 32 games against UNLV in Las Vegas.

"I don't want to take anything away from UNLV, but this is a great win for us," said forward Kirk Snyder, who led the Wolf Pack with 20 points. "We just had more of an inside presence. We always want to go hard. Our fear isn't in losing, it's in not competing.

"We leave it all out on the floor."

Reno mirrored the intensity of fifth-year coach Trent Johnson, who kept a jousting session going with official Verne Harris for much of Monday's game.

Johnson admitted that he's just a "Nervous Nellie" until the final buzzer, out of respect to the game and to get the most out of his players. Guard Todd Okeson said Johnson is that way for every second of every practice, too.

"He wants us to play as hard as we can," Okeson said. "And when we get someone down, he wants us to go for the knockout. It all starts with our defense. We feel like we'll win every game."

Last week, the Wolf Pack gave No. 1-ranked Connecticut a battle before bowing to the Huskies on their own court.

Monday, Reno treated the Mack as if it were its own court.

It was only tight for about 11 minutes, before the Pack rattled off 10 consecutive points -- on baskets by five different players. In that stretch, UNLV turned it over three times and Blassingame attempted an ill-advised pull-up jumper.

That stamped the Rebels' evening.

Reno kept a double-digit lead most of the rest of the way, pushing it to a game-high 20, at 72-52, with 2:43 remaining on a layup by Jermaine Washington.

UNLV (1-1) struggled to rally because of its disorganization, impatience and poor choices, in shooting and passing. When cohesive play mattered most, the Rebels panicked in many ways.

"A bunch of crazy stuff," Spoonhour said. "There was so much dribbling, dribbling, dribbling ... everyone tried to do something on his own. And it didn't work."

Odartey Blankson, a junior power forward playing his first big game as a Rebel since he transferred from Marquette, was left to shoulder much of the burden down low.

He finished with a game-best 21 points and a team-high 11 rebounds, but he obviously needs help.

That arrives Saturday, at home against California, when James Peters returns from a three-game suspension for using an unauthorized telephone calling card. Center J.K. Edwards is back Dec. 13, in a game at Stanford.

UNLV center Louis Amundson was mostly indecisive, unsure in his passing and his touch close to the rim. He finished 2-for-9, with six of his nine rebounds coming on the offensive end.

Johnson and his top players noted the Rebels' weak inside presence, which they frequently exploited. With 5:38 left, Washington punctuated the victory by following Paul's close miss with a resounding dunk.

"We worked hard to come out and give them a run for their money," Snyder said. "Coach does a great job preparing us, and that's what keeps us in control the whole game."

Next door, in a practice gym in the Cox Pavilion, Western Illinois went through its blue-collar drills in preparation for its game Wednesday night against the Rebels inside the Mack.

Spoonhour hoped the Leathernecks and new coach Derek Thomas, a Spoonhour assistant at UNLV for the previous two seasons, didn't get too good of a look at how the Rebels played Monday.

"I think they would take heart," Spoonhour said, from seeing "the chinks in our armor ... and they'll try to take advantage of it."