PROVO - Whatever UNLV coach Lon Kruger said to his Rebels at halftime ought to be written down for future reference.
The Rebels' ramped up intensity in the second half—coupled with ice cold shooting by BYU to start the second half — gave UNLV its second conference win after trailing by 13 at the half Wednesday in a 76-70 win over BYU in Provo.
Kruger said the Rebels' good fortune was a combination of the Cougars' poor shooting and his team's strong second-half defense.
"Obviously two different halves put together," Kruger said. "But proud of the effort, proud of the fight. Especially it means a lot because we know how good BYU is."
Two different halves indeed. Kruger's Rebels shot 46 percent to BYU's 51 in the first half, but turned that around to shoot 50 percent to the Cougars' 25 in the second. From the 3-point line, BYU shot 44 percent in the first half to only 25 in the second while UNLV went from 22 percent 3-point shooting in the first to 60 percent shooting from downtown in the second.
"Obviously, BYU is terrific, especially in here," Kruger said. "Being down 13 at half like that, and then go out and claw away and inch our way back into it."
The Rebels limited the Cougars to a 1-of-17 start in the second half, a complete turnaround from the first, which saw the Cougars open up their transition game to the tune of six fast-break points and nine points off turnovers.
"First half, BYU won all the battles—loose balls, running out in transition like crazy," Kruger said. "And that always has to be a priority when you play BYU — to try to limit their transition. And it looked like in the first half we were encouraging it."
The Rebels also got plenty of help from the hot hand of senior guard Wink Adams. Adams led all scorers with 22 points on 7-of-16 shooting from the field and 8-of-10 shooting from the line.
"Wink was terrific, he kept fighting and kept fighting, and had a couple where he got to the rim and didn't get anything out of it and kept bearing in there and made a lot of good plays for us — which we have to have," Kruger said.
Adams said Kruger made a fairly strong statement at halftime.
"At halftime, he wasn't too excited about how we played," Adams said. "He said we definitely have to go out and play a harder second half — it's not going to be easy — we've got to go out and fight and win battles. And that's what we did in the second half."
Making 3-of-4 from behind the 3-point line, Tre'Von Willis added 13 points for the Rebels who got 16 points off the bench while tallying nine points off turnovers and nine second-chance points.
E-MAIL: jdavis@desnews.com
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