UNLV looks to hold serve in tightening MWC race

by David Fucillo on Jan 23, 2010 5:00 AM PST in Basketball

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Saturday, Jan 23, 2010, 3:00 PM PST
TV: CBS College Sports
Daniel-Meyer Coliseum

While BYU is holding on to the title of best team in the conference, the battle for #2 team has tightened up, with the expected teams of UNLV, New Mexico and San Diego State all sitting together at 3-2 in conference. The Rebels have the arguable edge with wins over the other two teams, but they'll need to keep taking care of business this afternoon on the road at TCU. TCU was a small part of the eventual unglueing that was the 2008-2009 UNLV Rebels season. Inconsistency might be the best description for TCU at this point, as they have not been able to get any sort of sustained winning streak going to date. UNLV has to avoid a letdown if they want to keep pace in the conference race.

TCU is led by sophomore guard Ronnie Moss with 13.7 ppg, followed by senior forward Zvonko Buljan with 13.4 ppg and senior guard Edvinas Ruzgas with 12.7 ppg. Buljan leads in rebounds as well with 9.3 rpg while sophomore forward Kevin Butler follows with 5.6 rpg. Buljan was selected to the preseason all-MWC team. The Frogs are 8-3 at home this season and will be looking for their second straight home win against UNLV. Last season TCU was the first conference loss in a slate of games that decimated a UNLV season that was gaining steam leading up to that game.

The Rebels seem to finally be finding a consistent #2 scorer to pair with Tre'Von Willis. Chace Stanback took some time to get going, but has now scored double digit points in 4 straight games, culminating in a career high 19 on Wednesday at Colorado State. If UNLV can continue to consistently get 14-17 points from Stanback, it will ease Willis' scoring load. Since conference play began, Stanback is 5th in the league in both scoring (13.6) and rebounding (7.4). Meanwhile, Tre'Von Willis has put up 20+ points in all five conference games. Willis is the #2 scorer in the MWC with 16.9 points per game, but is leading the conference since conference play began with 23.0 point per game.

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	18	27.3	5.4	11.2	48.3	1.1	3.9	27.1	5.1	5.8	87.5	0.9	2.9	3.8	3.1	2.4	1.1	0.2	2.8	16.9
Oscar Bellfield	19	27.0	3.6	8.5	42.6	1.2	3.3	34.9	1.6	2.1	75.0	0.8	1.8	2.6	4.6	2.1	1.2	0.3	2.8	10.0
Chace Stanback	19	24.0	3.6	8.6	42.3	0.7	2.4	28.9	1.9	2.4	82.2	1.7	3.8	5.6	1.3	1.7	1.6	0.7	2.5	9.9
Derrick Jasper	19	25.0	2.7	5.9	46.4	0.5	1.8	26.5	1.1	2.3	48.8	0.6	4.1	4.7	2.8	1.4	1.2	0.5	2.3	7.1
Kendall Wallace	19	18.1	2.3	5.4	42.2	1.7	4.2	41.8	0.6	0.8	73.3	0.5	1.4	1.9	0.9	0.4	0.4	0.0	1.8	6.8
Matt Shaw	19	16.2	2.3	5.2	43.9	0.8	2.0	39.5	1.2	1.6	76.7	0.8	2.1	2.9	0.4	0.6	0.4	0.6	2.5	6.5
Anthony Marshall	19	16.9	1.9	5.6	34.9	0.1	1.1	4.8	1.0	1.7	57.6	0.8	1.3	2.1	1.3	1.4	1.3	0.3	1.6	4.9
Darris Santee	19	12.4	1.8	2.9	61.8	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.1	1.9	56.8	1.1	2.8	3.8	0.2	0.3	0.2	0.6	1.9	4.7
Brice Massamba	19	11.6	1.5	2.1	72.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.1	1.7	65.6	1.3	0.8	2.1	0.3	0.4	0.2	0.3	2.2	4.2
Justin Hawkins	19	12.3	1.2	3.0	40.4	0.4	1.2	36.4	1.2	1.7	68.8	0.6	0.7	1.3	0.6	0.5	0.7	0.3	0.9	4.0
Steve Jones	19	11.4	0.6	1.9	33.3	0.1	0.6	9.1	0.5	0.6	81.8	0.6	0.6	1.2	0.5	0.4	0.1	0.1	1.1	1.8
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

TCU Horned Frogs

			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
Ronnie Moss	19	33.1	4.4	12.2	36.4	1.9	5.6	34.0	2.9	4.5	65.1	0.6	2.5	3.1	6.4	3.7	1.0	0.3	2.2	13.7
Zvonko Buljan	19	28.6	4.9	10.4	47.2	0.8	3.2	25.0	2.8	3.8	74.0	2.2	7.1	9.3	2.5	4.1	0.7	0.3	3.3	13.4
Edvinas Ruzgas	19	31.7	4.5	8.7	51.5	2.2	5.3	41.6	1.6	2.2	73.2	0.7	2.4	3.1	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.1	1.5	12.7
Kevin Butler	19	24.8	2.6	4.3	59.8	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.3	2.2	59.5	3.2	2.4	5.6	0.8	0.6	0.8	0.6	2.6	6.5
Greg Hill	17	19.1	2.0	5.4	37.0	1.0	3.6	27.9	1.5	1.8	80.6	0.3	1.6	1.9	1.3	1.4	0.8	0.2	1.5	6.5
Keion Mitchem	19	20.1	1.8	4.1	43.6	0.7	2.3	32.6	0.4	0.6	72.7	0.6	1.4	2.1	1.7	0.9	0.6	0.0	1.4	4.7
Garlon Green	19	16.8	1.5	3.4	43.8	0.3	1.1	23.8	1.4	2.0	71.1	0.7	1.7	2.4	0.2	0.9	0.2	0.4	1.9	4.6
Nikola Cerina	19	17.8	1.6	3.1	51.7	0.2	0.5	30.0	0.8	1.4	57.7	1.1	2.6	3.7	0.7	0.9	0.3	0.5	2.9	4.1
Xavier Roberson	18	11.8	1.2	3.1	39.3	0.6	1.6	34.5	0.7	0.9	75.0	0.2	1.0	1.2	0.9	1.1	0.6	0.0	1.4	3.7
Tory Woods	3	1.7	0.3	1.0	33.3	0.0	0.7	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.7
Logan Lancon	9	4.0	0.2	0.8	28.6	0.0	0.2	0.0	0.1	0.2	50.0	0.2	0.4	0.7	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.0	0.7	0.6
Marin Bavcevic	4	1.8	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.5	0.0
Zach Huie	2	1.5	0.0	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.5	0.0

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Comments

Willis' Side Kick

I think you’re right about Stanback being consistent, but we also have players that are talented that if they become more consistent like Stanback has the past 5 games, we could be a real power, the issue is with getting that consistency

Rebel Rock

by rebelfan1 on Jan 23, 2010 11:02 AM PST reply actions