"Basically it was just like last year all over again," said Rene Rougeau, who had 10 rebounds, including six offensive boards for the second straight night. "When we went in at halftime, we were down and just said to ourselves, 'This happened last year, we were down big.' We definitely didn't get our heads down. We came out with a lot of motivation and hunger for those first few minutes."

To start the second half, the Rebels called a play for Rougeau, whose basket cut the deficit to two, and the Rebels were off and running.

After Plaisted sank one of two free throws, Adams and Rougeau scored and then Joe Darger, the junior forward from Riverton High School, sank back-to-back 3-pointers to push the lead to seven at 45-38.

BYU didn't fold and came back to tie the game at 47 on an inside shot by Plaisted. But Curtis Terry, who finished with 20 points, started going to the basket and getting fouled and he scored six straight Rebels points to give them a 53-49 lead, and then it was the Wink Adams Show after that.

"It's frustrating, but I'm very proud of our players because we battled and competed," said Rose. "We came up a little short. But in this situation, we came up a little short because UNLV played really, really well. It's a credit to them."

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E-mail: sor@desnews.com