Yee Haw! Rebels draw Cowboys in first round

Steve Guiremand

Monday, March 7, 2005 | 9:21 a.m.

PROVO, Utah -- UNLV had just rallied to defeat BYU at the Marriott Center for the first time since 1998. But as the Rebels left the locker room following their sixth victory in their past seven games, a 76-66 win against the Cougars, their thoughts were already turning to this week's Mountain West Conference tournament in Denver.

More specifically, Thursday afternoon's quarterfinal against Wyoming (15-12, 7-7).

The Rebels (15-12, 7-7) swept the regular-season series with the Cowboys, defeating them 79-67 at the Thomas & Mack Center on Jan. 24, and 68-66 on Odartey Blankson's 17-foot fallaway jumper with three-tenths of a second remaining on Feb. 19 in Laramie.

"We've had two tough ballgames with them," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. "(Both) games could have gone either way. It's going to be a big battle as four-five (seeded) games are supposed to be."

"I have a lot of respect for their players," added sophomore guard Michael Umeh, who scored 15 of his 20 points in the second half as the Rebels used an 18-0 run to overcome a 37-33 halftime deficit against the Cougars. "They do a lot of things well. Wyoming is always a tough opponent."

Still, the Rebels are most likely a lot happier trying to beat Wyoming for a third time this year than they would be facing a well-disciplined, patience-testing Air Force squad against whom they split two games. The Falcons finished third by virtue of their 61-56 win against the Cowboys on Saturday in Colorado Springs.

"I think some teams just match up well," senior forward Andy Hannan said. "Wyoming, we've had their number so far. They like to run and we like to run. I think we match up well with them and I think we'll get them on (Thursday)."

"We got them two times in the conference," Umeh added. "I think we feel good about playing them again, but you never know what's going to happen."

Closing out the season with six victories in seven games, including four on the road and another over Kansas-slayer Missouri, has the Rebels feeling a lot more confident heading to Denver. But senior forward Odartey Blankson, who finished with 22 points and eight rebounds against BYU, said it's guarded optimism.

"We have more confidence now but at the same time we still finished 7-7 in conference," Blankson said. "We had a nice turnaround toward the end but we still have to come out focused because everyone in this league is a tough opponent."

"You've got to focus on the game in front of you," added senior point guard Jerel Blassingame. "(But) we're looking at the bigger picture, too. We want to get to the (NCAA) tournament. We don't want to go to the NIT. Hopefully we can go (to Denver) and put some wins together."

Blassingame, who helped fuel UNLV's second-half comeback at BYU with five points, four assists and two steals in 17 minutes of action, finished the year with 156 assists (5.8 per game), which was 13 more than runner-up Jay Straight of Wyoming (143, 5.3 per game).

"It feels good," Blassingame said. "At least I can leave here with some kind of record. I always want to lead the team in assists. I make sure that is my goal every night I go out there."

Blassingame now has 361 assists in his two-year UNLV career. Straight, who has started four years at Wyoming, holds the conference career assist mark with 448.

And afterward, he tore into the MWC officiating crew of Bill Gracey, Randy McCall and Shawn Lehigh.

Asked if he thought Air Force's defense had anything to do with his struggles, Straight told the Casper Star-Tribune: "Hell, no. Ain't none of them can guard me. They pushed and they fouled and the refs didn't call nothin' today. That's what it was.

"I ain't never been one to complain about the refs, but it was brutal today. It was brutal ... and we got screwed."

Straight repeatedly drove to the basket against Air Force's zone defense but went to the foul line only three times.

"Wouldn't you (get frustrated)?" Wyoming coach Steve McClain said. "He's getting beat to death right now. He's taken it like a champion in these last three or four games, but it gets frustrating. ... Yeah, he was frustrated. And I don't blame him. I would be, too."

Don't be surprised if Straight gets one of those public reprimands from the conference this week for breaking its sportsmanship code.

Amundson suffered the injury in practice Thursday following a collision with Joel Anthony. He will attempt to play this week with a special face-guard.

"I'm not really sure how it happened," said Amundson, who watched Saturday night's game in street clothes. "I don't know if I got hit by an arm or a foot.

"I've got to wear a mask now which kind of (stinks). But all I really care about right now is being able to play in the tournament. That's the most important thing now."

"The other guys kind of had it going and we just didn't get back to him," Kruger said. "Everyone wants to play. He'll be fine. He's been great all year. He's a little disappointed and that's understandable. But he's happy that Mike (Umeh) played well and Curtis (Terry) played well and Andy (Hannan) played well."

Kruger had flirted with the idea of starting Beck over Hannan during practice last week.