Rebels not letting conference loss hold them down - Las Vegas Sun

Sam Morris / Las Vegas Sun

San Diego State guard Jamaal Franklin drives past the UNLV defense during their game Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012 at Viejas Arena in San Diego. Franklin had a game high 24 points, including a last second shot for the lead as San Diego State won the Mountain West Conference opener 69-67.

By Taylor Bern (contact)

Monday, Jan. 16, 2012 | 2:01 a.m.

Dave Rice’s message to his team in the days leading to Saturday’s game at No. 22 San Diego State was the same as the one he delivered after the 69-67 loss: One game does not a conference season make.

No matter what, UNLV’s coach said, the Mountain West will be won in the remaining 13 games. Now that the Rebels are 0-1 in league play, the task is to make sure that message is taken to heart.

“One game doesn’t sink us,” Rice said.

Saturday was the Rebels’ sixth straight loss to San Diego State and ninth out of the last 10 meetings. So, yeah, the loss itself isn’t too surprising. And as long as it doesn’t roll over to Wednesday’s home conference opener against TCU, it may not be too damaging.

The key is learning from it. But finding lessons in the loss isn’t very easy.

None of the Rebels, from Rice on down, have been able to explain their propensity to play better in the second half. If they could, then they would just apply that to the start of each game.

And as for the atrocious shooting in the first half, it’s not like these guys suddenly forgot how to shoot a basketball. The woeful percentage â€" they opened the game 4-for-24 â€" could be contributed to eight days without a game, the team’s recent track record in Viejas Arena or even just bad luck.

“We were finding each other and making good plays,” said Chace Stanback, who scored seven points. “We just weren’t able to knock shots down.”

Junior guard Anthony Marshall said the Rebels were too excited in the first half. That’s in contrast with UNLV’s other notable first-half disasters, which contained the energy of a pot of decaf.

UNLV vs. San Diego State 1-14-12

UNLV took a lot of jump shots in the first half, often within the first 10 seconds of the shot clock. Hindsight would suggest working the ball more inside-out, which the Rebels did to marginal second-half success, but Rice emphasized that the team’s style requires that players not be afraid to pull the trigger when they have a shot.

“That’s how we will always play,” Rice said. “We want our guys to play with confidence. When their feet are set, they shoot the ball.”

So besides saying it just wasn’t their day, what do the Rebels take from this?

“Take every possession like it’s the last,” Marshall said. “You can’t take any plays off. And you’ve just got to challenge yourself on the defensive end.”

In order to pass that message along to teammates, Marshall need only show them his game tape.

Marshall scored 18 points in the second half for a game-high 26, further solidifying himself as one of the Rebels’ top scoring options and the go-to guy down the stretch.

If UNLV takes only one thing away from Saturday’s loss, it should be the desire to take over a game the way Marshall did in the second half.

He wasn’t perfect. A turnover with about three minutes left led to an and-one on the other end that gave the Aztecs a 65-62 lead.

But he was determined, resilient and unwilling to accept defeat without giving everything he had.

“When he’s making plays, you’ve got to kind of let him go and let him play,” Moser said.

Every Rebel should aspire to the same thing.