Adams gets his point(s) across

Adams said he had a point to prove. By the time he was done, he had a career-high 33 points.

"Everybody was angry. Everybody knew what we had to do," Adams said. "I just wanted to win the game."

Down eight points at the half, the Rebels rallied behind Adams to defeat Wyoming

78-71 before a crowd of 10,082 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

"We got a scare," Adams said.

And it seemed there was nothing to fear from the Cowboys, who stumbled in as the last-place team in the Mountain West Conference.

But eight days after blowing out Brigham Young, UNLV came out flat and had a fight on its hands for 40 minutes.

The Rebels (14-4, 3-1) survived as Adams scored 12 points in the final four minutes. He hit 7 of 8 free throws in the last minute and made 11 of 12 from the line in the game.

"It was a great effort by Wink. He took us a long way tonight," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. "We were scrambling just to hang in there."

Adams shot 9-for-21 from the field, including 4-for-7 on 3-pointers. His previous career high was 27 points, which he had in two games last season.

Brandon Ewing hit six 3-pointers and scored 26 points to lead Wyoming (6-11, 0-5).

Ewing made four 3s in the first 10 minutes, and the Cowboys took a 40-32 lead at halftime. That put the Rebels in a foul mood.

"We kind of slacked off and got lazy on defense," Adams said.

Kruger said he saw no need to deliver a motivational speech to his players in the locker room.

"I didn’t have to say a lot to them," Kruger said. "They pretty much talked to each other about that."

Adams made two 3-pointers during UNLV’s 16-2 run to open the second half. His two free throws put the Rebels ahead 48-42 with 14:25 remaining.

But the Cowboys kept coming back, and they tied it at 60 on Tyson Johnson’s short jumper with 5:20 to go.

After a layup by UNLV’s Marcus Lawrence and a free throw by Wyoming’s Ryan Dermody, Adams stepped up again. His 3-pointer pushed the Rebels’ lead to 65-61 with 3:48 on the clock.

Adams followed with a steal and a pass to Lawrence for a fast-break layup. Two more free throws by Adams made it 69-61 with 2:32 left.

"We definitely didn’t underestimate these guys. I don’t think we took them for granted," said UNLV junior Rene Rougeau, who finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds. "Sometimes we kind of play to the level of our competition.

"Ewing was just hitting all kinds of shots, and we felt like we weren’t playing good defense."

The Cowboys, coming off a 27-point loss at San Diego State on Saturday, shot 26-for-57 (45.6 percent) and held a 45-30 rebounding advantage against the Rebels.

After playing suffocating defense against BYU in the

70-41 victory Jan. 15, UNLV allowed 40 first-half points to Wyoming. The Rebels were able to make up for that by committing only two turnovers to the Cowboys’ 18.

"If we didn’t have that advantage in the turnover department, then we probably don’t win the ballgame," Kruger said.

UNLV shot 24-for-65 (36.9 percent) from the field, including 7-for-25 on 3-pointers.

Joe Darger finished with 15 points and Curtis Terry 10 points and five assists for the Rebels, who next play Saturday afternoon at San Diego State.

Contact reporter Matt Youmans at

myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 387-2907.