Rebels lead at the half
UNLV appears to be on its way to a second-straight victory at the Thomas & Mack Center tonight.
The Rebels hold a 40-25 advantage over TCU at the half.
Chace Stanback hit a jumper at the buzzer, giving him a team-high 10 points, to account for the margin.
Kendall Wallace hit three 3-pointers and has nine points at the break.
Ronnie Moss has 10 points to lead the Horned Frogs.
UNLV has scored 14 points off of 13 TCU turnovers, while committing just six of their own. Anthony Marshall has four of those and has yet to take a shot in eight minutes of action.
Stanback added five rebounds and four assistsin the half. He also has three steals.
Zoning in
UNLV jumped out on TCU early by forcing turnovers and turning it into a transition game.
The Horned Frogs got back in it by slowing the pace to a halt and setting up in a zone.
The Rebels, as usual, had all kinds of trouble getting any kind of shot against it.
UNLV finally created a bit of margin again when back-to-back 3-pointers by Oscar Bellfield and Kendall Wallace gave UNLV a 19-10 lead midway through the first half.
There are several ways to beat a zone. The best is ball movement and dribble penetration.
The other, yet less preferred way, is to make 3-pointers.
Wallace and Bellfield both shot the ball well and that makes it difficult for teams to sit back in a zone.
TCU down a player
Forward Nikola Cerina did not make the trip to Las Vegas and, obviously, will not play tonight.
The freshman has averaged nearly six points and four rebounds per game for the Horned Frogs.
Zvonko Buljan started in his place.
Buljan is the team’s second-leading scorer, but has been coming off the bench lately.
Jim Christian in the house
TCU coach Jim Christian has done a decent job with the program since taking over, but there was a time some people wanted him to be on the other sideline in this building.
Several prominent media members were vocal in their support of Christian getting the UNLV job when it was available.
Instead, UNLV got Lon Kruger.
That’s probably why the media isn’t responsible for hiring coaches.
