Humble beginnings

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2004 | 9:24 a.m.

The Lon Kruger era of UNLV basketball didn't exactly start with a bang Tuesday night.

Clang was more like it.

The Rebels (0-1), slowed to a crawl at times by a patient and well-coached St. Mary's squad that already had five games under its belt, sputtered to a 64-54 loss to the Gaels (4-2) in Kruger's coaching debut before a crowd of 11,550 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Oh, the Rebels did shoot 52.9 percent on the night ... from the free-throw line. But the team's outside shooting was especially dreadful.

UNLV made just 22 of its 64 field-goal attempts (34.4 percent) and nearly saw its NCAA record streak of at least one 3-pointer in 570 consecutive games come to an end. Freshman guard Curtis Terry hit one with 12:14 remaining in the second half to tie the game, 41-41, for the Rebels' only 3-pointer in 12 attempts (8.3 percent).

Despite the poor shooting, UNLV had a good chance to pull the game out at the end after going on a 7-0 run to tie the contest, 48-48, on two free throws by Odartey Blankson with 6:23 to go.

But senior forward Frederic Adjiwanou scored seven of his 15 points during a 14-2 spurt over the next 5 1/2 minutes as the Gaels won going away.

"Obviously, it's not the beginning any of us wanted in terms of a first game for our group," Kruger said.

"It's an opportunity for us to learn from this. We understand we've got a long way to go and a lot of work to do. I think these guys will hitch it back up (today) and get back after it."

It was an especially long night for UNLV's returning big three of Blankson, point guard Jerel Blassingame and shooting guard Romel Beck.

Blankson, who set a Mountain West Conference record with 19 double-doubles last season, was just 5-of-15 from the floor, including 0-for-3 from 3-point range, en route to just 12 points and eight rebounds.

Blassingame, in arguably his worst game in a Rebels uniform, didn't score until just five seconds before intermission on a short pull-up jumper. He finished with just six points on 3-of-12 shooting and had as many turnovers (four) as assists (four).

Beck, replaced in the starting lineup by sophomore Michael Umeh, came off the bench to score seven points but was just 3-of-10 from the floor and 0-for-2 from 3-point range.

The final tally for the senior trio: 11-of-37 from the floor, 0-for-8 on 3-point attempts, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 25 points.

"We missed some open shots," Blankson said. "We try not to hang our heads and the hit the next shot."

Kruger said: "We'll make a lot of shots that we didn't make tonight. Again, it's hard to say why. I think we've got guys who can shoot the ball well on the year."

Might it have been opening night jitters?

"There's no way to measure that," Kruger said. "We hope to play better the second time out than we do the first time, and we hope to play better the third time than we did the second time and make some progress.

"Everybody would like to (win their opener). It's something we'll talk about for a couple of days, but I don't think it will be remembered very long. We just have to get better results and step forward."

The Rebels return to action on Friday night when they host Oregon State at 7:30 p.m.

Sophomore guard John Winston did not play in the contest as Kruger elected to go with the smaller and quicker Ricky Morgan for matchup purposes. "There's only so many minutes behind Jerel and Ricky got those tonight," Kruger said. ... The loss was the first in 14 season openers for UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center.