Ousting opponents one by one

Steve Guiremand

Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2005 | 9:15 a.m.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- UNLV senior forward Odartey Blankson, like the rest of his teammates, seems to be saving his best for last.

The Rebels (13-11, 5-6), thanks in part to another brilliant performance by Blankson, won their fourth consecutive game and completed a Front Range trip sweep for the first time in school history here on Monday night with an 81-79 victory against Colorado State (10-15, 2-10) at Moby Arena.

Blankson, who was the hero of the first leg of the trip on Saturday afternoon when he nailed a game-winning 17-foot jumper with three-tenths of a second remaining in a 68-66 victory at Wyoming, scored a game-high 31 points, including a huge 3-pointer that put the Rebels up by eight points, 77-69, with 2:35 remaining. He also grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds.

"If (Utah center Andrew) Bogut was not in the league, Blankson would be player of the year," Colorado State coach Dale Layer said, referring to the Utes' probable top-five NBA draft pick. "I don't remember him missing. He made shots with guys hanging all over him. He had an answer for everything we threw at him."

Blankson just smiled when informed by a group of reporters of Layer's statement.

"That's a great compliment," he said. "Bogut is a great player."

"There's no question he's emerged as the senior leader," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said of Blankson. "He's making big plays. ... His (shooting) confidence is a lot improved."

The 6-foot-7 senior from Chicago almost single-handedly kept the cold-shooting Rebels in the game in the first half when he scored 15 points on 5-of-12 shooting. The rest of the team combined to make just 5 of 24 attempts (21 percent), but UNLV still trailed by just six points, 37-31, despite shooting 28 percent from the floor.

"He was the one guy playing and making big baskets and keeping us in the game," Rebels guard Michael Umeh said. "He's leading by example. He carries us with those big baskets and big plays and we follow."

Blankson had nine of UNLV's first 18 points after intermission as the Rebels opened with an 18-9 spurt to take a 49-46 lead.

Senior guard Romel Beck, who finished with 17 points and a career-high seven rebounds, took over from there, nailing a long 3-pointer and following it up with a steal and a 3-point play as UNLV extended its lead to nine points, 57-48, with 11:54 to go.

But Colorado State slowly battled back in a foul-plagued second half --- the two teams combined for 30 fouls after halftime --- and got as close as one point, 68-67, on a Matt Nelson free throw with 4:51 remaining.

UNLV answered with a 9-2 run with Blankson capping the spurt with his 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 77-69. The Rams never got as close as two points after that, when freshman point guard Sean Morris connected on a 3-pointer with 3.8 seconds left.

The Rebels then inbounded the ball to point guard Jerel Blassingame, who manged to avoid a foul attempt by Rams guard Jon Rakiecki to run out the clock.

"A lot of guys made some really good plays," Kruger said. "It was good to see. We needed every one of them, obviously. (Blankson's) effort again was terrific."

Blankson is averaging 24.5 points and 8.3 rebounds in the last six games for the Rebels.

"Dot (Blankson) has put together a string of games that is really good to see," Kruger said. "He's been awfully consistent. I guess it's part of the maturity of being a senior and a go-to guy. That's what he's supposed to do and we need him to do that. He's been a big key in the stretch run here."

"My teammates are doing a good job of penetrating and kicking," Blankson said. "The big guys who are defending me are worried about me driving, so they're kind of backing off me a little bit. They've kind of been giving me the open shot. I've just been knocking it down."

The Rebels, who moved into sole possession of fifth place in the Mountain West Conference with the victory, play host to Air Force (16-10, 7-4) and New Mexico (20-6, 7-4) this weekend.

"We're rolling," Beck said. "Everything is clicking. (But) we know we have a lot of work ahead. We just have got to keep working hard."