Rebels surge to haltime lead

UNLV put together its best first half of basketball so far this season to take a 40-28 lead over Holy Cross into halftime at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Oscar Bellfield scored eight point for the Rebels in the half, and Justin Hawkins had seven.

Holy Cross seized the early 5-3 lead, but UNLV quickly took the lead and never trailed again.

UNLV shot 46.9 percent from the field, but was out-rebounded 24-16 by the Crusaders. Holy Cross had 10 offensive rebounds in the half.

Chace Stanback had five points and four rebounds for the Rebels.

R.J. Evans had a game-high nine points for the Crusaders.

Bellfield, Derrick Jasper, Anthony Marshall and Matt Shaw all have two fouls at the half.

Quick shot

Kendall Wallace entered the game for the first time with just over 12 minutes remaining in the first half. As he came off the bench, UNLV was inbounding the ball under the basket on the offensive end of the court.

Wallace came off a screen and shot the ball immediately upon catching the inbounds pass.

The baseline jumper fell and Wallace had his first points of the game less than two seconds after entering the game.

Press your luck

UNLV went to the full court press for the first time with about 11 minutes to go in the first half.

The Rebels got steals on Holy Cross’s first two possessions against the defense.

The Crusaders are a pretty good Patriot League team, but they just don’t have the ball handlers to deal with UNLV’s pressure defense.

Even when Holy Cross was able to break the press, it couldn’t get transition baskets, which is what you need to do to get a team out of it.

The Rebels have looked very good in transition defense, though they only stayed in the pressure full-court defense for a few.