Pride is all that’s on the line against BYU

Steve Guiremand

Friday, March 4, 2005 | 10:24 a.m.

UNLV's conference finale at BYU on Saturday night will really have no effect on the Rebels' seed for next week's Mountain West Conference tournament in Denver.

Either a win against or a loss to the Cougars (9-19, 3-10) would put the Rebels (14-12, 6-7) in the No. 4 vs. No. 5 game against the loser of Saturday's Wyoming-Air Force contest.

So just what does Lon Kruger's squad have to play for at the Marriott Center other than pride?

"That's enough right there," senior forward Odartey Blankson said. "It's the pride of getting back at them for beating us at our place. I'd love to go out and ruin their Senior Night, to tell you the truth."

Blankson and company still have some bitter memories of their last meeting against the Cougars, a sloppy 82-72 overtime loss on Feb. 5 at the Thomas & Mack Center. The Rebels blew a seven-point lead in the final five minutes of regulation.

"That was a tough loss," recalled Blankson, who finished with a career-high 33 points and grabbed 13 rebounds that night. "We had a lead on them and lost it at the end. We'll find enough motivation for this game."

Besides, the Rebels, who saw their season-best five-game winning streak evaporate with a 77-66 loss to New Mexico on Monday night, hardly want to limp into the Pepsi Center on Thursday with a two-game losing streak in tow.

"Every game is big at this time of year," Kruger said. "To win a game going into the tournament would be a good momentum-builder.

"(A win) doesn't change who we play for sure from our perspective. We're going to be four or five (seed) regardless. We can't change that. But still you'd like to be going in there off a win."

And finishing 7-7 in conference sure sounds a lot better than 6-8.

"We're going to be real focused," sophomore guard Michael Umeh said. "We've got to get back to the .500 mark in league. And we need to get some positive energy going into the Mountain West tournament."

"(The trainers) seemed to think it was (broken)," Kruger said.

Amundson got hit in the face by an elbow from backup center Joel Anthony while scrambling for a rebound. He fell to the floor but left under his own power a few minutes later, holding a towel to his face. He then was taken to see a doctor.

Kruger said he was unsure if Amundson would be able to start on Saturday. Anthony was playing with the first unit at the time of the injury.

Kruger was also flirting with the possibility of returning senior Romel Beck to the starting lineup ahead of Andy Hannan.