Titans Zone Out Against UNLV’s Defense : College basketball: Small doesn’t score and Fullerton shoots season-low 30% in 76-47 loss against No. 12 Rebels.

There was nothing fancy or complicated about Nevada Las Vegas’ defense against Cal State Fullerton Monday night.

The Rebels played zone the entire game, shifting between a 1-2-2 and a 2-3. There was no box-and-one or amoeba-and-one to combat Titan shooting guard Joe Small. No full-court press or half-court traps. And, believe it or not, no man-to-man.

Yet UNLV was able to completely dismantle Fullerton’s offense in a 76-47 Big West Conference blowout of the Titans in front of 14,275 in the Thomas & Mack Center.

The victory extended the 12th-ranked Rebels’ nation-leading winning streak to 20 and its home-court winning streak to 46, also best in the nation. UNLV, which clinched at least a share of the conference title, improved to 23-2, 15-0 in conference, while Fullerton had its three-game winning streak ended and fell to 10-12, 6-7.

The Rebels used their superior size inside to block six shots and alter several others, and their quickness on the perimeter to help cause 18 turnovers. Fullerton shot a season-low 30% from the field, and Small was held scoreless for the first time in his Titan career.

It was the second poor Thomas & Mack performance for Small, a senior who made only three of 16 shots and scored 11 points here in last season’s loss. It was the Titans’ third-worst shooting night in Coach John Sneed’s four years as coach, behind last season’s 25.9% at UNLV and a 27.5% performance against Wyoming in December, 1989.

UNLV also seemed to capitalize on most of Fullerton’s mistakes Monday, turning them into easy transition baskets and a slew of dunks.

Swingman J.R. Rider led the Rebels with 23 points, including 19 in the first half. Guard Dexter Boney added 16 points and four steals, and 7-foot, 265-pound center Elmore Spencer had 15 points, including 11 in the second half, and 10 rebounds. UNLV shot 51.7% from the field.

Forward Agee Ward scored 14 points and center Sean Williams added 13 points and 12 rebounds for Fullerton, but Titan perimeter players Small, Aaron Sunderland and Bruce Bowen combined for six points.

UNLV led by 12 points at halftime, but the Rebels opened the second half with a 17-4 run to take a commanding 56-31 lead with 11 minutes 52 seconds remaining. Spencer scored seven points and forward Evric Gray had six during the burst.

UNLV pushed the lead up to 35 points (74-39) with 5:16 remaining before both Sneed and Rebel Coach Jerry Tarkanian emptied their benches.

Even Rebel walk-on guard Jason Brooks, who made the team out of a UNLV conditioning class and is the only Rebel without a name on the back of his uniform, logged four minutes.

“Now you see why they’re the No. 1 team in the nation in field-goal percentage defense,” Sneed said. “Most zones are created to stop the inside game. But that zone does things with its quickness on the perimeter, and they have the big guys to stop the inside game.”

Entering the game, UNLV had limited opponents to a .366 shooting percentage from the field, and Tarkanian, a devout proponent of man-to-man defense who has at times cringed at the thought of playing zone, now praises the defense.

“The (1-2-2) zone has changed our season around,” Tarkanian said. “We went from being an average team to a nearly great team. And now that we’re running, it gives us a different dimension.”

When the teams met Jan. 2 in Titan Gym, Small had 14 points in the first half, and Fullerton led, 41-39, at halftime. But UNLV used a box-and-one and amoeba-and-one to limit Small to five second-half points, and the Rebels came back to win, 86-74.

Sneed calls UNLV “the most improved team in the nation since the beginning of the season.” That’s difficult to measure, but the Rebels certainly have improved more than the Titans have since they last met.

Fullerton challenged UNLV at home, but the Titans, who had won six of their last nine entering the game, were no match for the Rebels Monday. Sneed can only take solace in the fact that UNLV won’t compete in the Big West tournament this season because it is on NCAA probation.

“I don’t want the loss to destroy what we’ve accomplished in the last month,” Sneed said. “I don’t think anyone is going to beat this team (UNLV), and they can beat a lot of people in this league like they beat us tonight.”

UNLV got off to its usual slow start--this same team fell behind last-place San Jose State, 11-0, in an earlier conference game--and the Rebels were trailing, 11-5, with 16:29 left in the first half. The arena noise level rose as Rebel fans began to get restless.

But their fears were quickly put to rest when UNLV ran off 14 consecutive points, including eight by Rider, to take a 19-11 lead at the 12:35 mark.

Later in the half, reserve guard Dedan Thomas and Rider staged their own pass-and-dunk show.

Rider had three consecutive slams, including a one-handed, tomahawk jam, all on assists from Thomas, to give UNLV a 27-20 lead with 7:43 left in the half. Thomas had five of his seven assists in the first half.

“If UNLV wasn’t on probation, I think they’d be a surprise team in the NCAA tournament,” Sneed said. “That’s a very talented team.”

Titan Notes

UNLV has not lost a home game since Jan. 28, 1989, when it dropped a 90-88 decision to Oklahoma. The Rebels inherited the nation’s longest home-court streak Jan. 11 when Arizona, which had won 71 in a row in Tucson’s McKale Center, lost to UCLA, 89-87. Still, the 46-game home-court streak is only the second-longest in school history. The Rebels won 72 consecutive home games between Feb. 8, 1974 and Jan. 5, 1978. . . . UNLV now leads the lifetime series with Fullerton, 28-3, and the Rebels have won 23 of the last 24 games against the Titans. Fullerton’s only victory over UNLV in the last eight years was a 93-92 overtime victory Feb. 9, 1989 in Titan Gym. . . . The Rebels, who have won 20 or more games in 18 of the past 19 seasons, rank third nationally in field-goal defense over the last four-plus seasons (.414) behind Georgetown (.390) and Arizona (.411). . . . UNLV entered Monday night’s game ranked first in the Big West in scoring offense (81.1-point average), scoring margin (plus 14.5), field-goal percentage offense (.515) and field-goal percentage defense (.366). The Titans ranked last in scoring defense (78.2) and first in rebounding margin (plus 4.8).