Versatile Rougeau is Rebels’ role man

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By general definition, Rene Rougeau does the little things to help UNLV win basketball games. What that specifically means is he does a little bit of everything.

The 6-foot-6-inch junior guard might as well be nicknamed “The Janitor,” because he cleans up when the team gets sloppy and he turns out the lights on opponents.

“Whatever it takes for our team to win,” he said.

Rougeau was all over the floor again Saturday, hustling his way to 14 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals to push the Rebels to a 74-55 victory over Texas Christian.

“Rene was just terrific,” coach Lon Kruger said. “It’s all the little things he does within the game. He’s disruptive on defense, and he’s creating for teammates all the time. He’s doing a lot of the things that coaches and teammates really appreciate.

“Rene had a couple buckets and a couple steals, and he really set the tone.”

In the first two minutes of the second half, Rougeau scored four points and made two steals to spark the Rebels on a decisive 22-6 run.

UNLV, 22-6 overall and 11-3 in the Mountain West Conference, has won 20 consecutive games against conference opponents at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Wink Adams and Joe Darger each scored 15 points for the Rebels, who emerged from a sluggish first half with a 31-28 lead.

“We could have been playing a lot better,” Rougeau said. “We knew we had to pull away. We didn’t want to make it a close game the rest of the second half. I’m glad I was able to do something to get us going.

“I’m always trying to be a little deceitful and play the passing lanes.”

Rougeau’s steal 30 seconds into the half woke up the crowd of 12,615. He made four free throws to trigger a rally, and Adams, Darger and Curtis Terry each hit a 3-pointer to continue the surge.

Terry connected on another 3 from the corner to put UNLV up 53-34 with 11:11 to go.

“We always play off Rene,” Adams said. “Once he gets one or two steals, the crowd gets into it, we get into it and everybody plays real hard defense.”

Rougeau shot 4-for-6 from the field and 6-for-7 on free throws. The Rebels shot 50 percent (26-for-52) from the field and held the Horned Frogs to 34 percent (19-for-56).

“We turned it around in the second half,” Terry said. “Rene did a great job getting a steal and things kind of started rolling from there.”

Four minutes into the game, Terry was struck by an elbow that opened a gash under his right eye.

“All I know is I felt pain and it started bleeding,” said Terry, who went to the training room, took four stitches to close the cut and returned to the floor midway through the half.

Terry finished with nine points, eight in the second half, and five of UNLV’s 21 assists.

Senior forward Corey Bailey contributed 10 points and eight rebounds for the Rebels.

Kevin Langford scored 10 points to top TCU (14-13, 6-8).

“Every game won is another chance for us to get to the NCAA Tournament,” Rougeau said. “We really want to get there and make some noise once we get there.”

The Rebels, who next play Tuesday at New Mexico, hold a two-game lead over the third-place Lobos (22-7, 9-5) with two regular-season games remaining.

“It’s going to be a big challenge,” Kruger said. “We’ve got to line up and compete like crazy every night, and these guys have done a great job of that.”

Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2907.

UNLV 74

Texas Christian 55

TCU Min FG-A FT-A R A PF TP

Langford 27 4-9 2-4 4 3 5 10

Ortiz 24 2-6 4-5 12 0 3 8

Ebie 15 3-4 0-0 1 0 3 7

Wall 24 0-3 2-2 0 1 2 2

Hackett 25 1-13 3-5 5 3 1 6

Scott 17 2-5 1-2 1 0 1 6

Owens 19 2-6 0-0 4 1 1 5

Morones 10 1-1 0-0 1 0 3 2

Mitchem 11 1-5 0-0 1 1 1 2

Metzger 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 1 0

Parker 20 2-3 0-2 3 0 2 4

Tauscher 6 1-1 1-2 4 0 0 3

Ford 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0

Totals 200 19-56 13-22 37 9 23 55

Field goals–33.9%. Free throws–59.1%.

Three-point goals–4-20 (Scott 1-1, Ebie 1-2, Owens 1-2, Hackett 1-7, Ortiz 0-1, Langford 0-1, Wall 0-3, Mitchem 0-3). Team rebounds–1. Blocked shots–2 (Ortiz, Parker). Turnovers–13 (Langford 4, Ortiz 2, Hackett 2, Metzger, Parker, Mitchem, Wall, Ebie). Steals–3 (Hackett 3).

UNLV Min FG-A FT-A R A PF TP

Bailey 27 4-7 2-2 8 3 4 10

Darger 25 5-11 4-6 4 1 1 15

Adams 31 6-10 0-0 4 2 3 15

Rougeau 23 4-6 6-7 6 3 3 14

Terry 24 3-6 1-2 2 5 1 9

Rutledge 17 1-3 1-2 4 2 2 3

Wallace 21 1-3 0-2 3 2 3 2

Cage 7 1-3 2-2 2 0 0 4

Shaw 25 1-3 0-0 5 3 4 2

Totals 200 26-52 16-23 39 21 21 74

Field goals–50.0%. Free throws–69.6%.

Three-point goals–6-18 (Adams 3-6, Terry 2-5, Darger 1-3, Shaw 0-1, Rutledge 0-1, Wallace 0-2). Team rebounds–1. Blocked shots–3 (Adams, Shaw, Cage). Turnovers–13 (Adams 5, Terry 3, Bailey 2, Shaw 2, Wallace). Steals–9 (Rougeau 3, Adams, Rutledge, Cage, Shaw, Terry, Bailey).

A–12,615. Officials–Bob Staffen, Chris Rastatter, Brian Shelley. Technical fouls–Texas Christian: None. UNLV: None.

Texas Christian 28 27 — 55

UNLV 31 43 — 74