More than just a win

PROVO, Utah – OK, so raise your hand if you saw that second half coming.

The first 17 games of its season showed UNLV’s basketball team a tad unconventional in how it succeeded. The 18th game took such ways to a completely different level.

Teams don’t do this here. They don’t appear soft and slow and totally out of sorts enough to trail by 13 at halftime and then dominate Brigham Young after intermission to win by six. They don’t make it seem the Cougars are attacking air for the first 20 minutes and then hold them to 1-of-17 shooting the next 14.

But the Rebels did Wednesday night.

Jekyll, meet Hyde.

It’s dangerous to make too much of one victory in a season of more than 30 games, but in leaving the Marriott Center a 76-70 winner, UNLV made a statement about what kind of team it intends to portray in the Mountain West Conference race.

Hint: It’s not the one that trailed 43-30 at halftime.

"We competed to get results in the second half," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. "That’s why teams win. It’s about winning the battles, not any plays. Just because you run a play doesn’t mean something good will happen. It can be good or bad based on whether you win the battle.

"The first and second halves were about as inconsistent as you can get."

Said Wink Adams: "(Kruger) wasn’t very excited about how we played the first half."

He would have been more excited about a root canal.

It wasn’t just rebounding and defense and hustle that needed fixing at halftime. It was all of it and more. It was a toughness, a belief, a resolve that said the next time a BYU player flew down the lane for what seemed the 100th uncontested layup, someone wearing red was either going to take a charge or introduce him to the floor.

It was a commitment not to jog or run back in transition defensively but to sprint as if the next basket would decide the game’s winner. It was a pledge to finally show a physical presence that has been lacking most games this season and actually make BYU earn any good it received.

One game in 30 has its place but rarely a huge one. This is different. UNLV walked into its locker room at halftime a team with no fight and emerged from it ready to confront any challenge.

One game can equal a turning point in a season. This kind of win, the way it transpired, has the potential to produce such impact.

"It was an awkward position for us, especially here," BYU senior wing Lee Cummard said. "They got us out of our rhythm. Good defense by them. We weren’t feeding off any stops because we couldn’t stop them."

Teams don’t do this here. They don’t come into an arena where BYU had defeated 25 straight conference opponents and won 55 of its past 56 overall and hold the Cougars to one basket over an 11-minute stretch.

But the Rebels did. All of them.

Adams was terrific in scoring 22 and looks more and more like the all-conference player of last year, but UNLV needed all of Joe Darger and Oscar Bellfield making their free throws over the final two minutes and all of Tre’Von Willis hitting 5 of 9 shots in 34 minutes and all of the combined 15 points and five rebounds that Darris Santee and Brice Massamba offered.

You can build off this. You can take it and run and immediately restate your position as the team favored to win this league. You can enter a home game against Utah on Saturday knowing that if the Louisville win erases the Texas Christian loss, this victory takes much of the negative stain off the defeat at Colorado State.

You can be assured of having one road victory that none of the six remaining league teams will be favored to earn.

One game can mean that much, if you react accordingly.

"One possession at a time," UNLV senior Rene Rougeau said. "We have to think of it like that. We can’t be having the kind of lapses we did in the first half. It’s still early. We have to go get ready for a tough Utah team. We have to go win those battles."

It’s why they went from soft to determined Wednesday.

It’s why they refused to follow the lead of most teams that get down big here at halftime and roll over.

UNLV chose instead to stand and fight, leaving with a win that could potentially change the face of a season.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at 702-383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.