Rebel repeat

The Rainbows rally but cannot prevent UNLV from sweeping the home-and-home

Like its first meeting with UNLV, the Hawaii basketball team stumbled out of the gate last night at the Stan Sheriff Center.

And as in the season-opening loss in Las Vegas, the Rainbow Warriors' second-half comeback came up just short as the Runnin' Rebels pulled out a 61-58 win to complete a sweep of the nonconference home-and-home series between the teams.

In a game that wouldn't score many style points, the Rainbow Warriors struggled to score at all early in the game, making only six field goals in the first half.

They heated up to shoot 57 percent in the second half and tied the game with 1:20 left, but UNLV was able to hold on to send Hawaii to its second straight loss.

"It was too little, too late, obviously," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said. "Their defensive pressure once again took us out of our offensive sets early on. It was their defense early on that set the tempo for the game.

"The only good thing you can say is they didn't give up ... they stayed in there and fought, but it wasn't enough at the end."

On "White Out" night at the Sheriff Center, UNLV guard Wendell White -- who had just six points and five rebounds in the season-opening matchup in Las Vegas -- posted his second double-double of the season with 20 points and a season-high 11 rebounds, eight coming off the offensive boards.

His jumper at the top of the key with 1 minute left gave the Rebels the lead for good after UH tied the game at 56 on a 3-pointer by Matt Gibson.

Guard Wink Adams finished with 15 points and six rebounds.

"It's a good way to travel home, no question about that, it's a long trip," UNLV coach Lon Kruger said.

Gibson, Dominic Waters and Bobby Nash scored 11 points each to lead the Rainbows. Matt Lojeski was held to a season-low five points.

"I don't think it's the (defensive) pressure," Waters said. "We're not running our offense, we're rushing stuff, we need to be patient. We need to go back to the drawing board and run our stuff."

Both teams were cold from the field in the first half, with the Rainbows often struggling to get shots off against a UNLV's aggressive man-to-man defense.

The Rainbows attempted 18 shots, compared to 32 for UNLV, making six to trail 26-18 at halftime. Lojeski, UH's leading scorer, didn't break the ice until he got a jumper in the lane to roll in with 1:30 left in the half. No UH player made more than one field goal in the opening 20 minutes.

"We worked hard all week and for us to put a display on like that in the first half just didn't make any sense," Nash said.

"We didn't compete for 40 minutes tonight, we competed for probably 20," Waters said.

The Rebels were only slightly better at 10-for-32, but Wendell White had five of UNLV's nine offensive rebounds and scored six of his 11 points on putbacks.

The second half didn't start much better for UH as UNLV's Gaston Essengue hit a jumper and Corey Bailey converted one of two free throws after Lojeski was called for an intentional foul on a breakaway to open an 11-point lead.

By the 14:00 mark of the second half, both of UH's starting guards, Gibson and Lojeski, had four fouls each.

Yet, Hawaii was able to do enough to stay close and pulled to within three at 50-47 on a 3-pointer by Lojeski from the right wing and a tip-in by P.J. Owsley with a little less than 5 minutes remaining.

UNLV maintained a thin lead into the final minutes, until a banker by Nash and two Gueye free throws brought UH to within a point at 54-53.

After Essengue got a hook to drop, Gibson ignited the crowd by taking a pass from Gueye above the key and draining a 3-pointer just before the shot-clock buzzer went off to tie the game with 1:20 left.

White responded for the Rebels by hitting a clutch jumper of his own. Gueye then missed out on a chance to knot the game again when two free throws bounced off the rim, and Adams was fouled driving to the basket with 11 seconds left.

Adams made the first free throw to give UNLV a 59-56 lead. Waters was fouled with 5.4 seconds left to trim the lead to a point again. But Lojeski was called for an intentional foul with 2.3 seconds remaining as the Rainbows tried to stop the clock, and UNLV made two more free throws to hold on.

UNLV 61, Hawaii 58

RUNNIN' REBELS (6-2)

	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Bailey	0	1	1	2	18	1	0	1
Essengue	4	10	4	6	32	5	0	12
Adams	6	13	2	4	35	6	0	15
Kruger	1	7	5	7	36	4	4	8
White	8	19	4	5	31	11	0	20
Lawrence	0	0	0	0	9	0	1	0
Anthony	1	1	0	0	8	4	0	2
Terry	1	3	1	2	22	3	2	3
Darger	0	4	0	0	9	0	0	0
TEAM						0
Totals	21	58	17	26	200	34	7	61

RAINBOW WARRIORS (4-4)

	fg	fga	ft	fta	min	reb	a	tp
Nash	4	7	2	2	27	5	2	11
Gueye	2	5	4	10	28	11	1	8
Verwers	0	1	0	0	22	1	1	0
Gibson	4	5	1	2	15	3	1	11
Lojeski	2	6	0	0	32	6	1	5
Waters	2	5	7	8	29	3	2	11
Luettgerodt	2	5	2	3	24	1	1	6
Owsley	2	4	2	4	20	3	0	6
Veit	0	1	0	0	3	0	0	0
TEAM						2
Totals	18	39	18	29	200	35	9	58

Key -- fg: field goals made; fga: field goals attempted; ft: free throws made; fta: free throws attempted; min: minutes played; reb: rebounds; a: assists; tp: total points.

Halftime -- UNLV 26, Hawaii 18

3-point goals -- UNLV 2-16 (Adams 1-5, Kruger 1-6, Terry 0-2, Darger 0-3), Hawaii 4-10 (Gibson 2-2, Nash 1-3, Lojeski 1-3, Waters 0-2). Personal fouls -- UNLV 22, Hawaii 24. Fouled out -- Lojeski, Owsley.

Steals -- UNLV 9 (Essengue 3, Terry 2, Adams 2, Bailey, Kruger), Hawaii 4 (Nash, Verwers, Lojeski, Owsley). Blocked shots -- UNLV 0, Hawaii 3 (Gueye 3). Turnovers -- UNLV 11 (Adams 3, Essengue 2, Kruger 2, White 2, Anthony, Darger), Hawaii 20 (Lojeski 6, Nash 3, Gueye 3, Waters 3, Gibson 2, Luettgerodt, Owsley, Veit).

Officials -- Randy McCall, Tim Gabutero, Duane Allen.