MWC LIVE BLOG: UNLV moves on to MWC title game after knocking off BYU, 70-66

By Ryan Greene

Published Friday, March 12, 2010 | 5:30 p.m.

Updated Friday, March 12, 2010 | 10:41 p.m.

Final, UNLV wins 70-66

Capping off a night of hoops which truly lived up to its billing as one of the most significant in the Mountain West Conference's 11-year history, UNLV toppled rival BYU for the second time this season, 70-66, in the MWC tournament semifinals.

UNLV will meet San Diego State, who earlier in the night all but punched its ticket to the NCAA tournament with a 72-69 upset of top-seeded New Mexico.

The Rebels led by as many as 11 points in the second half before the Cougars clawed back to lead by two in the closing minutes. However, huge buckets and free throws from the likes of Tre'Von Willis and Brice Massamba helped UNLV squeak out its 25th win of the season.

UNLV has now won eight straight against BYU on the Thomas & Mack Center floor.

Willis led the Rebels with 18 points, and was largely responsible for keeping BYU star Jimmer Fredette bottled up offensively for much of the night on the defensive end.

Fredette finished with a game-high 30 points after exploding late.

Chace Stanback was huge for UNLV with 17 points and six rebounds, while sophomore Brice Massamba scored a career-high 13 points in a reserve role.

For full postgame coverage, stay tuned to lasvegassun.com/rebels for stories, video, photos, stats and The Rebel Room: Postgame Edition.

3:14, second half, UNLV leads 59-56

Offense is getting tougher and tougher for UNLV to come by late in the second half, and BYU's Jimmer Fredette is shaking loose at just the right time for the Cougars.

What at one point was an 11-point second half lead is now down to three points, with Fredette shooting a trio of free throws out of the game's final TV timeout. UNLV is up 59-56 with 3:14 to play.

Fredette now has 23 points on 7-of-18 shooting. Chace Stanback has team-highs for UNLV in points (15) and rebounds (6), but has been silenced on the offensive end of late.

11:59, second half, UNLV leads 51-42

UNLV hasn't been nearly as hot offensively in the second half as it was in the first. Then again, neither has BYU.

A big factor in that is Tre'Von Willis, who has stuck to him unlike many have tonight on the defensive end. Willis has 10 points, but his biggest contribution so far has been on the defensive end in sticking to Fredette. The BYU junior has 18 points, but since the opening minutes has had to earn every bit of it on 6-of-13 shooting.

As for the interior, UNLV sophomore Brice Massamba has tied a career-high tonight with 10 points. He's also pulled down three defensive boards.

Both teams are shooting OK in the second half, as they're a combined 8-of-20 from the floor, but shot attempts are what's coming at a premium. Very intense, heated game. And it's being played in front of the first sell-out crowd in MWC tourney history.

Halftime, UNLV leads 41-34

UNLV did a good job for 20 minutes of making Jimmer Fredette inefficient, and after picking their spots just right on the offensive end, the Rebels lead BYU at the break, 41-34.

Chace Stanback dropped in a jumper just before the buzzer to give the Rebels the 7-point edge, and he leads the team so far with 10 points.

The scoring did finally calm down a bit after a barrage of 3-pointers on both sides to open it up.

Fredette towards the end of the first half appeared visibly frustrated. After getting 24 free throw attempts on Thursday night in a 95-85 victory over TCU, he didn't get to the line until the final minute of the first half, arguing with refs throughout in an attempt to get a whistle.

UNLV has an edge to them tonight which the Rebels have displayed consistently in big games this season, and if they can't hold onto this one, it certainly won't be due to a lack of effort.

Here are some numbers of note from the first 20 minutes of action ...

— Fredette has 12 points, but just one rebound and one assist. UNLV has kept him stymied somewhat.

— UNLV's other biggest concern, Jonathan Tavernari, has four points on 1-of-4 shooting and two turnovers.

— The two teams are a combined 13-of-24 from 3-point range. UNLV is 7-of-10, including two apiece for Stanback, Tre'Von Willis and Kendall Wallace.

— UNLV has 11 points off of seven BYU turnovers.

— The Rebels are 16-of-26 from the floor.

— Oscar Bellfield has six assists and no turnovers. He has 17 points and just four assists in two-and-a-half games against BYU this season.

3:44, first half, UNLV leads 37-32

After weathering BYU's early flurry of 3-pointers with treys of their own, UNLV is holding a steady five-point lead over the Cougars as halftime approaches.

Kendall Wallace has been big off of the bench for the Rebels, hitting a pair of 3-pointers with hands in his face from the left wing. Also providing some unexpected offensive punch is sophomore forward Brice Massamba, who has six points after scoring on a trio of strong interior moves.

UNLV hasn't allowed Jimmer Fredette to do much offensively since early in the game, and meanwhile, Chace Stanback has been strong on the defensive glass for the Rebels. He has eight points and a game-high four rebounds.

Also, to go with his five points, Oscar Bellfield has five assists and no turnovers to this point.

11:39, first half, UNLV leads 21-19

In the first six minutes between UNLV and BYU, the two teams combined to hit nine 3-pointers, and now have settled into a heck of a shootout.

After Jimmer Fredette scored five straight points going into the first TV timeout, putting BYU up 19-14, UNLV ripped off a 7-0 run. It started with a Brice Massamba bucket inside, then had an Anthony Marshall baseline dunk and was capped by both a Tre'Von Willis three and a travel call on the Cougars' Jonathan Tavernari.

So far, the two teams are a combined 10-of-13 from long range, and the energy in the Thomas & Mack Center is off of the charts.

Things are also a bit testy between the two teams. Willis and Tavernari have slapped at each other a bit, and the Rebels have a general sneer to them tonight.

8:15 p.m. — San Diego State stuns No. 8 New Mexico, 72-69; UNLV-BYU next

Well, we'll never know what the atmosphere would have been like for a UNLV-New Mexico tourney title game.

The No. 8 Lobos overcame an 11-0 start by San Diego State, but never fully recovered from a big late push by the Aztecs, who scored the tournament's first big upset, winning 72-69.

In the Aztecs' second victory over the Lobos this season, Las Vegas native and Green Valley High grad Billy White finished with a game-high 28 points.

Kawhi Leonard had 15 points and 13 rebounds — including a career-high three 3-pointers — for SDSU, while Dairese Gary led four Lobos in double figures with 17 points.

Gary had a shot at a game-winning lay-up in the closing seconds, but went a bit too hard off of the glass. Leonard sealed the deal with two free throws with 0.7 seconds left.

The win all but guaranteed the fact that the Mountain West will now have four teams playing in the NCAA tournament come next week.

One other thing that's for sure is that there are plenty of tickets available now to tomorrow's title game, as dejected Lobo faithful are streaming through the aisles.

So now onto the second semifinal, which is the UNLV-BYU clash to close out the night.

On to tonight's three keys to UNLV victory, prediction and 'Pick to Click'.

1) Just like last night against Utah and the four games before that, the Rebels must start hot on the defensive end. It's always a little tougher against BYU, but it's certainly not impossible. These teams both want to play at the same pace, but UNLV needs to get the upper hand early.

2) Jimmer Fredette can score all of the points he wants, but the Rebels need to keep him inefficient. Want an example? They can't put him on the free throw line 24 times. He hit 23 of them last night.

3) Anthony Marshall doesn't need another double-double, but he has to be as all-around effective tonight as he was last night. He's made dealing with the loss of Derrick Jasper a lot easier for UNLV, and that needs to continue.

Prediction I'm going with the trend on this one, since this is a really tough call. UNLV's beaten BYU seven straight times on this floor, so I'll go with the Rebels, 82-76.

Pick to Click For the second night in a row, I'm taking Chace Stanback. He wasn't the biggest clicker last night, but his 10 points, six boards and three steals were nothing to scoff at.

7:00 p.m. — New Mexico leads San Diego State at halftime, 39-38

I'm not sure San Diego State could possibly ask for a better start than the one it got tonight against No. 8 New Mexico.

Kawhi Leonard hit two 3-point attempts, Billy White then hit another — yes, Billy White — and SDSU led UNM out of the gates, 11-0.

Oddly enough, New Mexico couldn't grab its first lead until there were five seconds left in the first half. A Dairese Gary lay-up did the job, putting the Lobos ahead 39-38.

What did we learn? Well, we learned that this second half could be epic.

White leads all scorers with 17 points on 6-of-8 shooting, while Gary leads the Lobos with 14 to go with his two assists and two rebounds.

Honestly, going by feel, I'd have to think New Mexico finds a way to get this one. Darington Hobson has been tame so far, but hasn't done much. You know he'll get going at some point, and Roman Martinez, who hit two key threes for UNM, will be back on the floor after picking up two quick fouls in the first half.

I'll be the first one to admit that I've been very critical of the Lobos' depth and bench play. But I've got to say the most important contribution for UNM in the first half came from back-up forward Will Brown. After going scoreless with three fouls in 11 minutes yesterday, he spelled Martinez perfectly by scoring seven points and grabbing three rebounds in 16 minutes.

I'm still alarmed by how many New Mexico fans are here. They've filled up almost half of the arena. And you know that if their team triumphs, they're heading to the top of sections 115 and 116 to try and buy up San Diego State tickets from dejected Aztec fans. The UNLV fans really need to step up tonight. No question.

5:30 p.m. — Pregame

Well, the Mountain West Conference got its wish, and tonight, the fledgling league hoops reputation gets a shot to take things up a notch.

Eyes almost all around the country will be on what promises to be a thrilling night of semifinal action.

The Thomas & Mack Center will be amped, as what are likely four NCAA tournament-bound teams will see the floor, starting with No. 8 New Mexico (29-3) and San Diego State (23-8) at 6 p.m.

The late game holds much more local interest, as UNLV (24-7) takes on No. 14 BYU (29-4).

Yes, it's very likely that by the end of this season, the league could potentially have two 30-win teams and four 25-win teams. Both would be MWC firsts.

One theme worth watching tonight will be officiating on all sides.

New Mexico's Darington Hobson made just as much noise with his antics yesterday against Air Force as he did with his 28 points and 15 rebounds. Will the whistle be tighter on him on the heels of a technical foul yesterday?

Another theme to watch in that game is the health of UNM point guard Dairese Gary and San Diego State's sharp-shooting freshman Chase Tapley. Both suffered lower body injuries yesterday, but both look pretty comfortable in pre-game warm-ups.

As for the UNLV-BYU game, it could be one heck of a battle between junior guards Tre'Von Willis and Jimmer Fredette.

As Fredette scored a MWC tourney-record 45 points yesterday against TCU, he did so by going 23-of-24 from the free throw line, earning several calls in traffic. As for Willis, who had a respectable 13 points and five rebounds, he wasn't getting as friendly of treatment on some hard drives to the bucket.

If Fredette can make his way to the line 24 times again, UNLV could have trouble overcoming that obstacle.

I'll be here with updates all night for you from the Mack. Stay tuned for everything from a memorable night in the Mountain West Conference night as it happens. Also, I'll provide more updates on Twitter at twitter.com/ryanmgreene.