Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004 | 8:45 a.m.
To hear senior forward Odartey Blankson tell it, there isn't much difference playing the small forward or power forward spot on UNLV's basketball team this year.
You'd have a hard time convincing the announced Thomas & Mack Center crowd of 10,022 at Tuesday night's 80-65 victory againstGardner-Webb of that, however.
Making his first start of the season at his familiar "4" position, Blankson looked like the dominating player he was in 2003-04, when he finished second in the nation with 19 double-doubles and earned first team all-Mountain West Conference honors.
Blankson, a 6-foot-7 senior from Chicago, finished with a season-high 30 points and a game-high 11 rebounds with most of the baskets coming from close range in helping UNLV even its record at 4-4 with a come-from-behind victory.
"I thought Dot played great," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said simply.
Blankson moved to the power forward spot he occupied while averaging 17.6 points and 10.2 rebounds a year ago to make room for senior swingman Andy Hannan to make his first start of the season, with junior big man Dustin Villepigue going to the bench. Hannan finished with four points and four rebounds in 23 minutes but did a nice job of passing the ball around as the Rebels settled down and ran some set plays on offense.
"We ran our offense pretty smooth tonight," Blankson said. "A couple of possessions we did a great job of moving the ball around and we did a good job of crashing the boards."
When asked about playing power forward for the first time this season, Blankson replied, "Me and Andy, we're pretty much interchangeable anyway. It's not a real big change. But at the same time we had a little more movement of the ball."
Got that?
UNLV, despite the fact Kruger continues to stress the importance of quick starts, once again came out of the gates slowly, falling behind 21-11 in the first 10 1/2 minutes as the Bulldogs (5-3) connected on seven 3-pointers in that span.
But the Rebels went on a 30-16 spurt to end the half and took the lead for good on Curtis Terry's 3-pointer, 35-32, with 2:18 left before halftime.
UNLV played arguably its best six minutes of the season after intermission, outscoring the Bulldogs 20-8 en route to a 61-45 lead. Gardner-Webb never got any closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
"Obviously, it was a slow start," Kruger said. "We've got to come out with a little more fire, a little more passion and a little more enthusiasm than we did tonight."
The Rebels don't have to wait long to try to change that. They come right back and play host to Florida Atlantic (1-6) at 7:30 tonight at the Thomas & Mack Center before taking a three-day break for Christmas.
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