Rebels take over with big run

After a dreadful start, UNLV rebounded and took over the game against Texas Christian with a 23-2 run at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Rebels trailed by as many as 10 points at 17-7 when the run began.

UNLV used the rally to grab a 40-31 advantage at the break.

Joe Darger hit four 3-pointers and has 14 points at the break, while Wink Adams added 10 for UNLV.

Tre’Von Willis had five points and four assists.

Edvinas Ruzgas leads TCU with 10 points. UNLV has been able to completely neutralize Kevin Langford, holding the Horned Frogs leading scorer to just two points in the first half.

Adams takes over

Senior guard Wink Adams was taken from the game early on in favor of Tre’Von Willis, but when Adams came back into the contest, he took over.

With the Rebels trailing by 10 points at 17-7, Adams scored eight straight points that keyed an 11-0 run that got UNLV ahead.

After a TCU bucket ended the spurt, UNLV scored the next 12 points to account for the 23-2 rally.

Sloppy first half

The two teams combined for 27 turnovers in the opening half.

TCU was particulary mistake-prone, but UNLV did commit 10 turnovers of its own.

The Horned Frogs were charged with 17 turnovers, which caused Jim Christian to put his head and his hands in disbelief on a number of occasions.

Zvonko Buljan made the blunder that appeared to cause Christian the most grief.

The forward non-chalantly flipped the ball over his shoulder to a teammate in the corner. The problem was that the play was so casual, that nobody was looking for the pass and it slowly rolled out of bounds.

Close the border

No American-born player scored a point for TCU until Ronnie Moss hit a jumper more than eight minutes into the contest.

The problem for the Rebels was that the Horned Frog imports had already combined for 13 points and TCU had held UNLV to just four as a team.

Edvinas Ruzgas (Lithuania) and Zvonko Buljan (Croatia) had combined for three 3-pointers as the Horned Frogs surged ahead 13-4 early in the contest.

Clowing around

Ronald McDonald is in the building tonight with hair even redder than Review-Journal columnist Ed Graney.

No word on whether the clown was just a metaphor for how the Rebels played in the first 10 minutes of the game.