Long Beach Is No Match for UNLV

For several weeks, Coach Jerry Tarkanian has chastised the Nevada Las Vegas basketball team for its lackadaisical starts.

But Thursday night in the Thomas & Mack Center, the Rebels finished off Cal State Long Beach in the first part of the first half of play and cruised to an 88-63 Big West Conference victory almost before a crowd of 14,390 could settle into their seats.

UNLV led, 32-10, after 12 minutes.

“We kept talking all week about how we can’t afford to keep getting out to these slow starts,” Tarkanian said. “This was a good game for us.”

Actually, the Rebels didn’t need to do much running to win, although they shot 11 for 14 from the field en route to their early 22-point lead. CS Long Beach, facing a 1-2-2 zone defense most of the half, made four its first 21 field goal tries. That included one of nine shots from three-point range. Lucious Harris, who scored 67 points in his past three games, took only three shots in the first 20 minutes and managed only four points. He finished with 20, but it was too little, too late.

“I don’t know what team played out there, but it wasn’t the Long Beach State we’ve had in practice,” 49er Coach Seth Greenberg said. “This was the least patient we had been in eight games. . . . I hate coming here.”

With UNLV serving out NCAA sanctions, this has become a nowhere-to-go season for the Rebels. They can’t be on live television, won’t see postseason action and aren’t nationally ranked. So there is little left for the Rebels to do but win. Thursday’s victory was the 23rd in 24 games over the 49ers by UNLV, which ran its overall record to 11-2 (3-0 in Big West play). It was also the Rebels’ 40th consecutive victory at home.

Evric Gray scored 28 points and Elmore Spencer had 14 and eight rebounds. Chris Tower scored 15 points and Frankie Edwards had 14 for Long Beach (8-4, 2-1).