Rebels draw another blank

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Dec. 9, 2004 | 9:17 a.m.

MALIBU, Calif. --- Oops, they did it again.

The UNLV Rebels (2-3) once again played well enough to win on Wednesday night at Pepperdine ... for about 35 minutes. But unfortunately for Lon Kruger's squad, college basketball games last 40 minutes.

After battling the Waves (7-1) on even terms for the first 15 minutes, the Rebels were outscored, 22-5, in the final 4:47 before intermission and could never recover en route to an 86-78 loss before an anounced crowd of 2,674 at Firestone Fieldhouse.

UNLV has had long scoring droughts in all three of its losses. The Rebels crumbled down the stretch in their season-opening 64-54 loss to St. Mary's and fell behind 11-0 in the first half of Saturday night's 84-74 setback at UNR. And this time Pepperdine, behind three 3-pointers by backup point guard Kingsley Costain, broke open what had been a close game with a 22-5 run to close out the half.

The Waves opened the second half with seven consecutive points to increase their lead to 24 points, 55-31, before UNLV finally awoke from its slumber and battled back to within seven points, 70-63, on a drive to the basket by point guard Jerel Blassingame. But as has been the case all too often this season, the Rebels' comeback unraveled at the end thanks to a rash of turnovers and missed layups.

"We've just got to work on avoiding those kinds of stretches," Kruger said. "It seems like we've had one in each ballgame. We have to play with more poise, more composure, more aggressiveness. There's a lot of things we need to work on.

"We've had some good stretches but we have to do that for 40 minutes," Kruger added. "We have to realize the significance of a layup we give away or a missed opportunity that turns into two points the other way and starts a run.

"We've just got to play each possession with greater significance."

Although obviously disappointed by their slow start -- remember, this was a team picked to win the Mountain West Conference in the preseason poll -- Rebels players say they aren't discouraged.

"It's too early in the season to be down on each other and down on our confidence," Blassingame said. "It's a long season. We're only five games in. We've got a lot more games to go."

Senior guard Romel Beck, who finished with 18 points on 7-of-20 shooting, added: "If you're putting your head down now, then you shouldn't be playing college basketball. There's too many games to be played. It's a long season."

Kruger agrees.

"It's very early in the year and we've got a ton of work to do," he said. "There's no time to feel sorry for ourselves. We've got to bounce back and get ready for Sunday."

The Rebels conclude their four-game road trip on Sunday afternoon at Auburn.

Senior forward Glen McGowan led the Waves with 27 points and 13 rebounds while junior guard Alex Acker added 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists. Costain, who came into the game averaging just 4.6 points, finished with 19 points in 22 minutes of action.