Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

UNLV blows out ISU in first road test, 82-51

Marshall leads four Rebels in double-figures, Kruger’s team improves to 7-0

UNLV vs. Illinois State

David Proeber / AP

UNLV’s Derrick Jasper (5) and Tre’von Willis (33) race to a loose ball ahead of Illinois State’s Tony Lewis (34) during the first half of Wednesday’s game in Normal, Ill.

Updated Wednesday, Dec. 1, 2010 | 7:04 p.m.

Final, UNLV wins 82-51

NORMAL, Ill. – Anthony Marshall got top scoring honors on Wednesday night in chilly Central Illinois, but yet again, everyone got involved as UNLV improved to 7-0 with a 82-51 thrashing of Illinois State.

Marshall scored 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting, also registering three boards and three assists.

Chace Stanback scored 12 points, all in the first half, as he led the surge following a slow start that saw ISU grab a 6-2 lead.

Derrick Jasper also had 12 points to go with nine rebounds, while Oscar Bellfield added 10 of his own. Tre’Von Willis, in front of vicious taunts from the ISU student section, had eight points, three rebounds and three helpers.

UNLV’s defense was again strong, holding ISU to just 20-of-55 shooting and forcing 16 turnovers.

The Rebels bus to Chicago tonight, fly back to Las Vegas in the morning and head to Reno on Friday for Saturday night’s game against rival UNR.

For full postgame coverage, stay tuned to lasvegassun.com/rebels.

7:00, Second Half, UNLV leads 65-42

NORMAL, Ill. – Despite a crowd that won’t let up with its taunts, UNLV appears to still feel right at home in chilly Central Illinois.

Seven Rebels have at least six points, and UNLV is in the late stages of a drubbing of Illinois State, leading 65-42.

UNLV is dominating the stat sheet in every which way, led by senior guard Derrick Jasper, who is en route to his second double-double of the season. He has 12 points and nine rebounds.

Tre’Von Willis continues to feed off of taunts coming from ISU’s raucous student section, and has eight points to go with three rebounds and three assists. He’s been consistently effective on defense despite a 3-for-10 showing from the field.

What’s impressive is that UNLV is showing no signs of letting up late in the game, wanting to get its money’s worth from the odd road trip.

ISU is just 17-of-48 from the floor, 2-of-19 from deep and has turned the ball over 15 times.

Apologies for lack of updates, as the wireless Internet access at Redbird Arena was down for almost an hour.

11 minutes remaining, UNLV leads 58-32

Forget coming out flat after winning the 76 Classic championship or the travel to Normal, Ill., affecting UNLV.

The Rebels are in the middle of the rout of Illinois State and lead 58-32 with 11 minutes remaining. Both Derrick Jasper and Chace Stanback have led the way with 12 points each for UNLV. Jasper and Stanback have also combined for 12 rebounds.

After falling into an early 6-2 hole, UNLV stormed back to take the lead and have not looked back. The Rebels were up 39-22 at halftime and have outscored the Redbirds 19-10 in the second half.

Anthony Marshall has added seven points, two assists and two rebounds.

The Sun has encountered Internet connectivity issues in the arena. We apologize, but will keep you updated for the rest of the game.

11:41, First Half, UNLV leads 15-8

NORMAL, Ill. – It took the Rebels a few minutes to wake up and get comfortable in their first true road test of 2010-11, but eight minutes in, they’re looking comfortable.

Illinois State took an early 6-2 lead thanks to two nice moves inside by sophomore leading scorer Jackie Carmichael.

However, Brice Massamba came off of the bench in relief of Quintrell Thomas and immediately executed two nice one-on-one moves against the Redbirds star.

Everyone else has fed off of it, as Tre’Von Willis, Derrick Jasper, Chace Stanback and Oscar Bellfield each have outside buckets since then and UNLV owns a 15-8 lead.

One thing to note of Illinois State is that it is resorting to longer outlet passes rather than bringing the ball up slowly against UNLV’s pressure defense, which is getting the Redbirds some better looks at the bucket. They’re simply not hitting shots, starting the game 4-of-13 from the floor.

Also, in the first true road environment of the season, Willis is catching a good amount of taunts from the ISU students related to his off-season legal woes. After one recent ISU turnover, though, he turned to the student section, stared and clapped.

Pregame

NORMAL, Ill. – Honestly, I have no clue when was the last time UNLV wore all-black uniforms.

The most trusted source I could find on this was one of the biggest Rebels fans I know – local die-hard Joe Spilotro.

By his account, the last time the Rebels donned ‘em was in 1999 for a non-conference game against North Carolina. He recalled it as a shellacking, with UNLV – who in some opinions was a preseason Top 25 team that year – falling on the short end. He added that in that game, prized junior college recruit Kenny Dye suffered a shoulder injury that, in effect, took away his UNLV career.

One last black uniform history nugget from Joe: He said that the long-standing rumor is that the team was supposed to wear them in the 1991 title game had it advanced past Duke. So, there’s that.

He didn’t swear by any of this, so I could be completely way off, but either way, interesting.

Anyways, after the little history lesson, UNLV (6-0) is hoping to reverse any curse that may lie with the all-black get-ups.

If the Rebels play tonight at Illinois State (5-1) the same way they did while running through a trio of foes in Anaheim over the Thanksgiving holiday, a 7-0 record will likely meet them on the other end.

However, despite their youth, Illinois State is balanced and has nice size, from the looks of ‘em here during warm-ups.

Here, now, are my three things to watch – er, listen for - during tonight’s tilt in Missouri Valley Conference territory:

1)      UNLV has to keep up the pressure. Even in a true road environment for the first time, if the Rebels pressure the Redbird guards like they did the Hokies on Sunday, then the Vegas oddsmakers will look not-so-insane for installing the Rebels as 9.5-point favorites.

2)      How will UNLV shoot the ball on the road? I think the team proved in Anaheim that it wouldn’t be affected as much this year by weird sightlines in a foreign arena. But with a partisan crowd against them, how do the Rebels respond?

3)      Can Tre’Von Willis make it two strong games in a row? By all impressions, Sunday’s showing against Virginia Tech had all the makings of being a true break-through game for him after getting a late start to the season. Now we see if he can keep it going, or if his warm-up phase to the season is still going.

All right, that’s it for me until after tip-off. Remember, there’s plenty more on my Twitter feed during games, so check in there at twitter.com/ryanmgreene, tweet at me during games and I’ll be right back at you.

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