Rebels find their stroke too late

Steve Guiremand

Wednesday, March 23, 2005 | 9:19 a.m.

COLUMBIA, S.C. --- During one of the timeouts during the first half of Tuesday night's second round NIT game between UNLV and South Carolina at the Colonial Center, the crowd of 8,730 was asked to play a game.

The name of the game? Where's Cocky?

Cocky is South Carolina's colorful Gamecock mascot who was eventually spotted in a corner of the arena. A better game for the crowd might have been called, "Where are the Rebels?"

UNLV (17-14) didn't seem to show up until late in the first half of a season-ending 77-66 loss to Gamecocks (17-13), falling behind by as many as 16 points, 33-17, out of the gate and never getting any closer than eight points the rest of the way.

The lethargic start, although seemingly commonplace early in the season, certainly wasn't expected coming on the heels of an impressive 89-78 victory against Arizona State on Thursday night.

"We didn't come out with energy and the way we're supposed to come out and play," said senior guard Romel Beck, who finished with a game-high 21 points. "The first half we looked dazed and confused. The crowd got into it and they made a lot of plays."

Beck wasn't kidding.

South Carolina's press and traps had the Rebels throwing the ball all over the court at the start. UNLV turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions as the Gamecocks jumped out to an 8-2 advantage and things seemed to snowball from there.

After just 12 minutes, the Gamecocks already had seven steals. The Rebels had 11 first-half turnovers which South Carolina converted several of them into five crowd-pleasing dunks.

Things weren't much better when the Rebels actually were able to get off a shot. UNLV, which trailed 37-24 at halftime, shot just 33.3 percent from the floor (8 of 24) in the first half and a dreadful 18.2 percent (2 of 11) on 3-pointers.

Maybe they could have used Cocky, who drew a standing ovation from the crowd at halftime when, with his back to the goal, he heaved the ball over his head and into the basket from midcourt. He just missed on another attempt.

"I thought they got after us right from the start," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. "I didn't think we responded the way we wanted to to their quickness and aggressiveness. They got us on our heels and pretty much dictated things throughout the night."

The Rebels, thanks to some inept South Carolina free throw shooting in the second half (12 of 26, 46.2 percent), put together a 7-0 run to finally cut the Gamecocks' lead to single-digits, 70-62, with 3:04 remaining. But even though South Carolina managed to sink just one of its last eight free throws after that, it didn't matter because the Gamecocks repeatedly came up with offensive rebounds after the misses.

South Carolina finished with a 42-33 rebounding edge, including a 14-7 advantage on the offensive boards. The Gamecocks outscored the Rebels, 19-4, on second chance points and 40-18 on points in the paint.

"That was the key to the game ... offensive rebounds," senior guard Jerel Blassingame, who finished with six points, four assists, two steals and just one turnover in his final UNLV game, said. "They just outfought us for the rebounds."

Blassingame said he had no explanation for the team's slow start.

"Some games we start fast and some games we start slow," he said. "That's the kind of year we've had. We were inconsistent with the way we started games. But at the end of the games, we always fought back. We just kept fighting."

And that, Kruger said, is what impressed him most about a team that could have very easily have packed it in after a very disappointing 9-11 start, including 2-6 in Mountain West play. The idea of even being eligible to play in a postseason tournament like the NIT seemed laughable at the time.

"(The seniors) should feel good about what they've done," Kruger said alluding to Beck, Blassingame, forwards Odartey Blankson and Andy Hannan and walk-on guard Colin Darfour. "They could have turned it off when they were 2-6 in league and 9-11 and they didn't. They just kept plugging."