Rebels lose Adams to abdominal injury, defeat Southern Utah, 73-60

By Ryan Greene (contact)

Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2008 | 9:18 p.m.

Final, UNLV wins 73-60

With Wink Adams lost for much of the night, Kendall Wallace provided a much-needed burst off the bench, as the Rebels improved to 11-2 with an up-and-down 73-60 victory over Southern Utah on Tuesday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Adams, UNLV's leading scorer on the season, went down in a heap under the SUU bucket mid-way through the first half with what was diagnosed as a strained abdominal muscle. He was in visible pain, and needed to be helped off the floor, unable to walk at all or straighten his body. He did not return, and Tuesday's game went down as the first scoreless effort in Adams' UNLV career.

The Rebels didn't have much time to sulk at the time, trailing the upstart Thunderbirds, 16-15. But Kendall Wallace hit a pair of first half 3-pointers, en route to finishing the night with 15 points, three rebounds and three assists in some extended duty off the bench.

René Rougeau was again the Rebels' most solid piece from start to finish, ending with 16 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots. Joe Darger scored 11 for UNLV, and even flexed down to play some center in the second half with Darris Santee and Brice Massamba struggling to get going.

As a team, UNLV was 26-of-48 from the floor and hit eight 3-pointers after cashing 14 of them on Saturday in a 79-64 victory over Arizona.

Lon Kruger's club is now off until it travels to face Louisville on Dec. 31. The players have two days off before returning for a Friday practice back at the Mack.

For complete coverage from Tuesday's game, including stories, stats, photos, video and The Rebel Room: Postgame Edition, stay tuned to www.lasvegassun.com/rebels.

7:32, second half, UNLV leads 57-41

Joe Darger and Kendall Wallace, for the second time tonight, hit back-to-back 3-points, and UNLV continues to roll towards win No. 11, leading Southern Utah, 57-41, late in the second half.

Wallace is playing extended minutes tonight with Wink Adams gone, and he's responded. Typically this season, a couple of 3-pointers have been the best you could hope for, but tonight he's stepping it up. He has 11 points, three rebounds and three assists. In the building, it's helped add some immediate relief to the wound left by Wink lying on the floor in a heap in the first half.

As for Darger, he's seeing minutes at center, as both Darris Santee and Brice Massamba have struggled tonight.

11:32, second half, UNLV leads 49-36

The post-Wink Adams Rebels continue to hold a steady lead over Southern Utah, but the Thunderbirds are certainly keeping things interesting. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Mike Josserand and Davis Baker have helped the T-Birds stay within range of UNLV.

René Rougeau continues to bring the energy better than anyone for the Rebels. He has 14 points, six rebounds, three blocks and an assist tonight.

The interior guys have struggled a bit this evening. Darris Santee has just six points and has looked a little casual, while Brice Massamba has two points and three rebounds, but has had a bit of trouble finding some footing at times on the defensive end.

Again, these guys get to skip town for the next two days if they choose. Add in Adams' injury -- which gets no prettier as time passes -- and you can't fault them if their minds aren't somewhere else a tad right now.

Halftime, Pt. 2, UNLV leads 39-25

We've just learned that Wink Adams suffered a strained lower abdominal muscle. He will not return to tonight's action. Now it's probably a very good thing for the Rebels that they don't play for eight days.

Tre'Von Willis gets the second half start for the Rebels, and this will go down as the first scoreless game of Adams' UNLV career.

Of course, this diagnosis is not final. It could be worse, or could be just a strain. More will probably not be known until at least later on tonight.

Halftime, UNLV leads 39-25

Kendall Wallace hit a late three, then Joe Darger added one at the buzzer to give UNLV a 39-25 lead over Southern Utah at the half here at the Thomas & Mack Center. Not the prettiest half of basketball for the Rebels, but the ups and downs were pretty understandable.

Things started a bit sluggish, then after UNLV woke up a bit, Wink Adams went down and off to the locker room with his injury. After a bit of an emotional hangover -- about two minutes, to be exact -- the Rebels found that late stride, and find themselves in a nice position at the break.

As for Adams' injury, the only news we have at the moment is that he's still in the building, and is undergoing further evaluations back in the locker room.

René Rougeau led the Rebels with 12 points, while Oscar Bellfield had eight. UNLV's 3-point touch from Saturday carried over, as the Rebels are 5-of-13 from deep and 15-of-28 from the floor overall.

The Rebels got 12 points off the bench, including the six from Kendall Wallace and four from Tre'Von Willis, who now become probably the most important players on the UNLV roster. No, it doesn't look like Wink will be back tonight.

3:28, first half, UNLV leads 31-22

There's a strong possibility that Lon Kruger told his team to snap out of it during the under-eight-minute media timeout, because they certainly did. Behind three straight buckets from René Rougeau -- including an alley-oop dunk -- and a Kendall Wallace corner 3-pointer, UNLV's bumped its lead to nine points over Southern Utah.

Wink Adams has yet to emerge from the locker room. Again, he left with what we'd have to assume is some sort of muscle injury to his abdominal/groin/upper right leg area.

As for Southern Utah, they've appeared to tire a bit. They're playing short-handed tonight, without 6-foot-7 senior Tyler Quinney, who's still hampered from an ankle injury suffered in their last game -- a 78-72 loss to Utah Valley.

7:57, first half, UNLV leads 20-18

UNLV looked like it was finding its form a few minutes ago, and now the Rebels look a bit unsure all over again. Part of that has to do with having just watched senior Wink Adams get helped off the court with an apparent lower abdominal/upper leg injury.

Adams went down in a heap under the goal on the offensive end after a missed shot, and he stayed there in a fetal position for a couple of minutes before being helped off the floor by the support staff. He was grimacing and let out several painful grunts. He couldn't put his right foot on the floor at all while being aided to the locker room.

We'll get you details as we're able to find them out.

It's safe to say now that maybe the two most important Rebels tonight could be Tre'Von Willis, who's looked great so far off the bench, and Kendall Wallace. Oscar Bellfield is carrying the offensive load so far with eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers.

11:16, first half, UNLV leads 15-14

It took awhile for the Rebels to get moving without the ball on the offensive end, but now everyone's gone into motion following a few sluggish moments. Notably, it's been the backcourt.

Oscar Bellfield capped UNLV's last lifeless possession with a 3-pointer from the left wing. After that, everyone seemed to be invigorated, and the result is a 9-2 run that has the Rebels ahead of Southern Utah, 15-14.

Bellfield added another layup high off the glass, and just before the timeout, Tre'Von Willis showed great hustle by following his own missed three by snatching a tipped rebound and putting in an open layup.

Also, it's worth noting the Christmas theme here tonight. The Rebel Girls came out and performed in skimpy santa-like outfits, and the pregame intro video had loud and powerful Christmas music over it. Nice touch.

15:40, first half, SUU leads 7-4

The defense has been there early for the Rebels in the sense that they've forced Southern Utah to expire almost the entire shot clock on almost every possession so far. The problem for UNLV so far, though, is that they've broken down a bit late, as both Thunderbirds buckets have come with the horn about to go off. So far, a Drew Allen 3-pointer and a Davis Baker layup inside have done the trick.

As for UNLV, not a ton of movement off the ball on the offensive end. Darris Santee has all four early points in what so far looks like a bit of an uninspired effort. SUU is sensing that.

Pregame

Well, it's certainly not going to be the same atmosphere tonight at the Thomas & Mack Center that it was on Saturday, when UNLV downed Arizona, 79-64.

Then again, no one ever said it would be.

The Rebels played in front of by far their biggest crowd of the season over the weekend, but tonight, with the holiday season underway, it won't be as intimidating of a road scene for Southern Utah as it was for the Wildcats.

But UNLV has a golden opportunity to be just as much of a bully tonight as it was on Saturday. The team will get a couple of days off for Christmas following tonight, reporting back for a practice Friday night back here at the Mack.

No one can argue against the fact that, against Arizona, UNLV looked the best it had all season. Offensively, defensively, everywhere.

Now the goal for the Rebels is to avoid complacency. SUU comes to town at 3-8, losers of four straight, all to in-state foes. A big stage is nothing the Thunderbirds are unfamiliar with. They played at Florida in the season's second game, falling 64-50. Read into that whatever you want.

Without much more to talk about, here are tonight's three big predictions ...

1) Picks to click: Miech is going with René Rougeau, I'll go ahead and take Darris Santee.

2) A letdown from Saturday in any way is highly unlikely. Remember, the Rebels don't play for eight days after this. Plus, they've got a track record of being solid going into holidays. Before Thanksgiving, they notched a good-looking 80-67 road win at UTEP. Of course, what happened after Thanksgiving was another story.

3) UNLV 77, SUU 52.

Talk to you after tip.