Rebels hope to stop Wolf Pack’s roll

For the first time in a long time, UNR coach David Carter is feeling good. The run of bad luck that tripped up his basketball team for a month finally has turned.

An eight-game losing streak has turned into a three-game win streak, putting the Wolf Pack in position to make a competitive run in the Mountain West.

“I told the team, sometimes it’s about momentum. We have a little confidence,” Carter said. “We’re still trying to find ourselves. When you have a lot of new players, it takes awhile for them to understand their roles.”

UNR (5-8, 1-0 MW) rolls into today’s rivalry game against UNLV (9-5, 0-1) at 8 p.m. at the Thomas &Mack Center with some rare momentum. The Wolf Pack swept the two-game series last season to stop an eight-game losing streak to the Rebels.

But both teams have changed. Carter had a senior point guard, Deonte Burton, to count on last year. Overlooked in the NBA Draft, Burton is playing professionally in Germany. The Rebels rolled out five new starters this season.

“It’s a different UNLV team,” Carter said. “It looks like this group is a little bit closer and more together, and that’s looking from the outside in. I think they are kind of similar to us, with a lot of new guys and a lot of inexperience.”

The Rebels’ youth is what concerns coach Dave Rice in this type of situation. After a string of high-profile games — three against ranked opponents since Dec. 20 — Rice is warning his players to avoid an emotional flat spot this week.

Rice started talking about it as soon as UNLV lost at Kansas on Sunday, even telling his team this is the “Super Bowl” for UNR.

“Sometimes it’s characteristic of new players that they get up for what are considered to be big games — Kansas, Arizona and those kind of games — but they need to understand that every league game is critically important,” Rice said.

“This is a team that’s playing its best basketball of the year. We had double-figure leads in both games last year and let them get away.”

The message got through to senior point guard Cody Doolin, who was not with the Rebels last season.

“I think we understand that this is a rivalry game, and we know it’s going to be a tough battle. It’s a good team that beat us twice last year,” Doolin said. “We have addressed that. We need to get ready and play with that same intensity against Nevada with no letup.”

Doolin mispronounced “Nevada,” so he’s still learning some things, too.

Carter praised Doolin and UNLV’s top scorers — freshman guard Rashad Vaughn and sophomore forward Chris Wood. Asked which one was more important to control, Carter paused.

“That’s a good question,” he said. “Wood rebounds, he defends and he scores outside, so that’s a tougher matchup for us. But Vaughn is really good. It’s tough to pick one. Wood has improved so much since last year.

“I think Doolin has done a great job of finding those guys and being unselfish. He finds Vaughn and he finds Wood, and that’s what you want your point guard to do. I think (Rice) is starting to feel better about his team. I think they have gotten better every week.”

AJ West, a 6-foot-9-inch forward, presents the biggest challenge for the Rebels. West has developed into a scoring threat, averaging 11.3 points, and ranks third in the nation with 4.9 offensive rebounds per game.

“West is as good a big player as there is in the conference,” Rice said.

The Wolf Pack start three guards with significant experience and scoring potential in Marqueze Coleman, D.J. Fenner and Michael Perez.

The pieces are starting to fit for Carter, who was puzzled during an eight-game skid that included a handful of narrow losses. In its first 10 games, UNR averaged 58.7 points. In its past three wins, it averaged 81.3 points and shot 47.3 percent from the field.

“Every game, except for one, I felt like we had a chance to win,” Carter said. “We lost our close games. I felt if we could get our offense going we would have a chance to win some of those games.”

West posted a double-double (16 points, 13 rebounds) as the Wolf Pack won its league opener Saturday in an 80-62 blowout of Air Force.

“I was very surprised,” Carter said. “I was anticipating a close game down to the wire.”

If that happens today, he’ll feel good about his chances.

Contact reporter Matt Youmans at myoumans@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2907. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyoumans247.