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UNLV looks to hold serve in tightening MWC race

By David Fucillo

Next Game

UNLV Runnin Rebels
@ TCU Horned Frogs

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

Complete Coverage >


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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