NFL
MLB
NBA
NHL
NASCAR
WNBAU-N-L-V (21-9) Vs. San Diego State (21-8)
GAME NOTES: Two teams expected to make a strong run at the regular season title in the Mountain West Conference finds themselves squaring off against each other in the quarterfinals of the 10th annual MWC Tournament today, as UNLV and San Diego State clash at the Thomas & Mack Center. In the case of the fifth-seeded Runnin' Rebels, the two-time defending tournament champions who have a total of three trophies from this event in the first nine years, have been extremely dominant in their own building over the last few season. The Rebels played very strong in the early going in 2008-09, even handing Louisville a rare loss at home, but the squad managed to post back-to-back wins just once from the end of January, which is why the Rebels find themselves as the supposed underdog in this meeting. As for the fourth-seeded Aztecs, winners of two MWC Tournaments, one of which came against UNLV by a mere three points in 2002, they too were strong against non-conference competition before hitting a few bumps in the MWC road in the middle of February. SDSU did manage to finish strong with three straight wins, including a 57-46 victory versus UNLV at home in Cox Arena last Saturday night. In terms of the all-time series between these two squads, UNLV maintains a sizeable lead at 31-14, yet the Aztecs swept the regular season series. The winner of this game will be back in action tomorrow night in the semifinals versus the winner of the Air Force/BYU bout.
Although he suffered an injury during the season that kept him out of action for a short time, Wink Adams was and is still the player that the Rebels turn to when they need a lift on the hardwood. He led the team in scoring with 13.9 ppg and his scrappy style of play earned him more trips to the foul line than all but one of his teammates. However, as unrelenting as Adams can be, he does tend to choose some poor shots and that has resulted in a mere 36.7 percent accuracy from the field and a miserable 26.5 percent behind the three-point line. Tre'Von Willis came on strong once he was inserted into the starting lineup, producing 11.7 ppg and 100 assists for the squad, not to mention 4.1 rpg for a team where everyone hits the glass. Rene Rougeau (11.2 ppg) not only made good on 56 percent of his field goal attempts this season, but he led the program with nearly seven rebounds per game and was responsible for more than half the team's blocked shots with a total of 60 rejections in his 30 starts.
Were it not for a rash of injuries and other assorted issues that kept crucial performers off the floor for the Aztecs this season, who knows how great the team could have been. As the one who has been there the most for the Aztecs, Kyle Spain has weathered some tough times in order to lead the program in scoring with his 14.4 ppg, not to mention handle a decent amount of the rebounding responsibilities with almost five and a half boards per contest as well. But what makes Spain such a dynamic performer is that he's able to balance his inside play with his 41 percent shooting behind the three-point line, which always makes it hard for defenses to match up with him. Lorrenzo Wade was the other double-digit scorer for the Aztecs this season with 13.8 ppg. Defense was the name of the game for this group though, limiting opponents to just 59.8 ppg and forcing those other teams into almost 100 more turnovers than they had assists through 29 games.
Being that this is the home floor for the Rebels and that SDSU was the last Mountain West team to win in the building, expect UNLV to have a sizeable chip on its collective shoulder when it hits the hardwood today.
Predicted OutcomeUNLV 68, San Diego State 65Copyright 2009 Courtesy of The Sports Network.
