Rebels sleepwalk through tuneup

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, Jan. 6, 2005 | 9:26 a.m.

With just four days to go before its big nationally televised league opener at Utah, the UNLV basketball team showed during Wednesday night's final tuneup that it is more than ready for the start of conference play.

At least the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, where Wednesday night's opponent, tiny Fort Lewis College, plays.

UNLV rallied to pull out a hard-fought, closer-than-the-final-score-indicates 92-80 victory over the Division II Skyhawks at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Rebels (7-5), who led 77-75 with 3:53 remaining, closed the game out with a 15-5 spurt to avoid what could have been arguably the worst loss in school history.

Up next is Mountain West Conference rival Utah (12-3), which has won seven games in a row and hasn't lost at home all season.

Senior forward Odartey Blankson scored six consecutive points during the final run Wednesday and also made a nice assist to guard Michael Umeh for another basket. Blankson, who had 19 double-doubles a year ago, looked like the first-team all-MWC player of 2003-04 down the stretch and finished with a game-high 25 points and 15 rebounds.

"I was just trying to not let my teammates down," Blankson said. "There definitely was a sense of panic at the end. But we found a way to win."

Added senior point guard Jerel Blassingame, who also had a double-double with 10 points and 10 assists but turned the ball over five times: "It was a tough win. It was ugly. But a win is a win."

UNLV coach Lon Kruger seemed almost apologetic for his team's victory.

"Obviously it was a ballgame we were fortunate to win," he said. "Obviously we've got a long way to go before we can consider ourselves a team that's playing good basketball."

Utah's potential NBA lottery pick, 7-foot Andrew Bogut, and talented senior point guard Marc Jackson are probably licking their lips in anticipation of Monday's 10 p.m. nationally televised matchup.

"Yeah, I'm not sure we're ready for that," a surprisingly candid Kruger said. "Obviously, we've got to play much better than we have to have a chance to compete effectively in league play."

Obviously.

Actually, UNLV had one of its better games of the season offensively against the Skyhawks (8-2), who didn't have a starter taller than 6-foot-6 and physically looked better suited to be playing a few blocks down Maryland Parkway against Bishop Gorman High School. All five UNLV starters finished in double figures, the Rebels finished with 21 assists on their 33 baskets and junior center Louis Amundson joined Blankson and Blassingame with a double-double of his own (15 points, 12 rebounds).

But the Rebels defense looked a step slow and out of position most of the game.

"We obviously had fits covering them all night," Kruger said. "We didn't do a very good job relative to position and working early on that end of the floor. And yet Dot (Blankson) made some big shots down the stretch. Michael (Umeh) made some big shots. Ro (guard Romel Beck) and J.B. (Blassingame) all made plays at a point and time when it would have been pretty easy to kind of get a little frustrated and panic a little bit and not win."

Blassingame said: "We learned tonight that we can't take nobody lightly no matter who it is. We've got to be better on defense. We weren't ready tonight to play defense."

They have four days to change that drastically or risk being embarrassed on national TV.

"I think this was a positive wakeup call for us tonight," Blankson said.