Rebels face always tricky Aztecs in Las Vegas

by David Fucillo on Jan 13, 2010 1:00 PM PST in Basketball

Next Game

San Diego St. Aztecs
@ UNLV Runnin Rebels

Wednesday, Jan 13, 2010, 7:00 PM PST
Thomas & Mack Center

The UNLV Rebels are coming off a big time road win at New Mexico and will be looking to continue their new-found momentum when they host the San Diego State Aztecs at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. While UNLV is playing fairly well, and SDSU is coming off a rather embarrassing loss at Wyoming (blowing a 14 point lead with 4:50 to play), the Aztecs have always given UNLV trouble. Last season, SDSU swept the season series, including a third game in the MWC tournament. The Rebels currently stand as a 6.5 point favorite, but this could be a dicey matchup for UNLV. If SDSU doesn't have a let-down after the tough loss, this should go down to the wire.

New Mexico a fairly decent amount of size to the table, which this season (and for the past couple seasons) has been Rebels kryptonite. UNLV continues to struggle on the glass, which only makes their life that much more difficult when the rigors of conference play kick in. SDSU brings a fairly balanced offensive attack, that helped them to a conference opening upset at home against New Mexico. They were without leading scorer Billy White at Wyoming and rumor has it he might miss this game as well. While that would be a tough blow tonight, SDSU still has freshman forward Kawhi Leonard averaging 11.1 ppg along with junior forward Malcolm Thomas (10.9 ppg) and junior guard D.J. Gay (10.3 ppg). Leonard also leads the team in rebounds with 9.6 rpg as the Aztecs are one of the top rebounding teams in the conference.

UNLV will look to build on their win at New Mexico as the Rebels will be hosting their conference home opener. This will actually be only UNLV's third true home game in the last 46 days (the Kansas State game was on a "neutral site" at the Orleans Casino). At this point, the pecking order is slowly being established for the Rebels. Tre'Von Willis would appear to be the leader of this team on the court, but fellow transfers Chace Stanback and Derrick Jasper are slowly establishing their presence. Guard Kendall Wallace can be inconsistent at times, but he's coming off his best career game, finishing with 21 points 7/10 shooting from behind the three-point line.

UNLV Rebels

			FG			3PT			FT			Rebounds			Misc
	G	M	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	Off	Def	Tot	Ast	TO	Stl	Blk	PF	PPG
Tre`Von Willis	15	25.7	5.2	10.6	49.1	1.1	3.9	27.6	4.1	4.5	91.0	1.0	2.8	3.8	3.3	2.5	1.1	0.2	2.9	15.5
Oscar Bellfield	16	26.9	3.8	8.9	42.0	1.3	3.7	33.9	1.5	2.1	70.6	0.8	2.0	2.8	4.4	2.0	1.2	0.1	2.8	10.3
Chace Stanback	16	23.1	3.2	8.1	39.2	0.8	2.5	32.5	1.4	1.8	75.9	1.8	3.6	5.4	1.4	1.6	1.5	0.8	2.6	8.6
Kendall Wallace	16	18.3	2.5	5.5	45.5	1.9	4.3	44.1	0.7	0.9	73.3	0.5	1.6	2.1	0.8	0.4	0.4	0.0	1.9	7.6
Derrick Jasper	16	25.6	2.9	6.1	46.9	0.5	1.8	27.6	1.2	2.4	50.0	0.6	4.1	4.6	3.0	1.4	1.4	0.5	2.1	7.4
Matt Shaw	16	16.1	2.4	5.3	45.9	0.8	1.9	41.9	1.4	1.8	78.6	0.9	1.8	2.7	0.4	0.7	0.4	0.8	2.5	7.1
Darris Santee	16	13.5	2.0	3.2	62.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.3	2.2	60.0	1.1	3.0	4.1	0.2	0.3	0.2	0.6	1.8	5.3
Anthony Marshall	16	17.0	2.0	5.7	35.2	0.1	1.3	4.8	1.1	1.7	63.0	0.8	1.1	1.9	1.4	1.3	1.3	0.3	1.6	5.1
Brice Massamba	16	10.8	1.5	2.1	70.6	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.2	1.8	65.5	1.3	0.9	2.2	0.3	0.4	0.1	0.3	2.3	4.2
Justin Hawkins	16	13.4	1.3	3.3	37.7	0.4	1.3	30.0	1.1	1.7	66.7	0.7	0.7	1.4	0.6	0.6	0.8	0.3	1.1	4.0
Steve Jones	16	12.4	0.7	1.9	35.5	0.1	0.7	9.1	0.6	0.7	81.8	0.6	0.6	1.1	0.6	0.4	0.0	0.0	1.1	2.0
Todd Hanni	4	3.5	0.0	1.3	0.0	0.0	0.8	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.5	0.3	0.8	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.5	0.0
Tyler Norman	5	2.6	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.2	0.2	0.4	0.0	0.2	0.6	0.0	0.0	0.0
Mychal Martinez	4	1.5	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.0

SDSU Aztecs

			FG			3PT			FT			Rebounds			Misc
	G	M	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	Off	Def	Tot	Ast	TO	Stl	Blk	PF	PPG
Billy White	14	27.6	5.0	8.0	62.5	0.3	0.8	36.4	2.0	3.4	58.3	2.6	2.8	5.4	1.1	2.2	1.2	0.9	2.6	12.3
Kawhi Leonard	16	30.2	4.3	9.7	43.9	0.4	2.4	15.8	2.3	3.2	70.6	3.6	6.1	9.6	2.1	2.4	1.4	0.5	2.4	11.1
Malcolm Thomas	16	30.4	4.2	7.5	55.8	0.1	0.2	33.3	2.4	4.7	52.0	2.8	4.9	7.6	1.8	1.9	0.9	1.5	2.4	10.9
D.J. Gay	16	32.4	3.4	8.9	38.5	1.8	4.6	37.8	1.7	2.3	73.0	0.6	1.6	2.1	3.1	1.9	1.3	0.1	1.6	10.3
Tyrone Shelley	14	22.9	2.9	6.7	42.6	0.9	2.9	29.3	1.5	2.7	55.3	0.9	3.0	3.9	1.1	1.8	1.6	0.7	1.7	8.1
Chase Tapley	16	21.8	2.9	6.0	49.0	0.8	2.5	32.5	0.4	0.6	77.8	0.8	1.6	2.4	2.3	0.9	1.2	0.3	1.3	7.1
Kelvin Davis	15	17.4	2.3	5.3	42.5	1.3	3.9	33.9	0.9	1.5	59.1	0.3	0.8	1.1	0.9	1.4	0.5	0.2	1.9	6.7
Brian Carlwell	16	15.7	2.1	3.2	64.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.9	1.5	58.3	1.3	1.7	2.9	0.2	0.9	0.3	0.3	2.0	5.0
Tim Shelton	8	12.4	0.9	2.5	35.0	0.5	1.1	44.4	0.9	1.9	46.7	0.9	0.9	1.8	1.6	1.0	0.1	0.1	1.8	3.1
Alec Williams	8	8.0	0.8	1.6	46.2	0.1	0.4	33.3	0.6	0.8	83.3	0.3	1.0	1.3	0.4	0.1	0.0	0.0	1.3	2.3
Jason Deutchman	3	3.7	0.3	0.7	50.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	1.3	75.0	0.0	0.7	0.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	1.7
Bryan Horton	6	5.0	0.3	1.0	33.3	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.2	0.8	20.0	0.2	0.3	0.5	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.0	0.3	0.8

Tweet Comment 2 comments | Add comment | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Billy White is most likely out.

High ankle sprain.

Mountain West Connection ::Above the Rest::
Bolts From The Blue "There’s a gleam men. Let’s go get the gleam! Focus and Finish!!! One play at a time!!! Let's Go!!!"
Representing the San Diego State University Aztecs, home of the 2009 College Cheerleading National Champions in the all women's division.

by Sam (sdsuaztec4) on Jan 13, 2010 1:47 PM PST reply actions