SALT LAKE CITY — Don’t give the Mountain West Conference regular season championship trophy to the Utah Utes (20-7, 11-2) quite yet after Wednesday night’s 70-60 victory over UNLV.

Not with back-to-back road games at BYU (20-7, 9-4) and New Mexico (18-10, 9-4) on the immediate horizon before a season-ending home date with TCU (14-14, 5-9). But things definitely look pretty promising for Jim Boylen’s squad.

However, they look even better for Utah’s 7-foot-2 senior center Luke Nevill, who seems like a cinch to claim the MWC Player of the Year Award before heading off to the big riches of the NBA.

Simply put mate, the big Aussie from Perth had the biggest impact in Wednesday night’s game, and it went well beyond his 11th double-double (19 points, 13 rebounds) of the season.

Nevill, who has a 7-foot-6 wingspan and also blocked three shots, easily affected close to a dozen more as the Rebels failed to finish a number of easy drives to the basket while shooting just 34.5 percent (20-of-58) from the floor.

Credit Nevill for a lot of that. No doubt the Rebels could feel his big presence over their shoulders as they tried to take it to the hoop on drives only to miss.

“Luke, he stood on the Mountain West sign (in the middle of the key) and took up the whole paint,” UNLV guard Wink Adams, who scored 9 points on just 3-of-12 shooting, said. “You can’t get the shot up. Whenever you go to the basket against Luke you always look for the shooters.”

“I play as hard as I can every game and just try to impact it any way possible,” Nevill, who has won five MWC Player of the Week Awards this season, said. “In the second half I wasn’t able to get the ball (on offense) but I just tried to help out defensively.”

Nevill’s impact goes beyond his shot-blocking. The Rebels had to try and double-team him down in the post where he had a seven-inch advantage on UNLV forward Joe Darger. That freed up Utah’s perimeter shooters for plenty of wide-open 3-point looks and the Utes took advantage, sinking 8-of-14 (57.1 percent).

Utah broke open what had been a pretty even game with an 18-4 run over the final 5:39 of the first half en route to a 38-24 halftime lead. Senior forward Shaun Green and guard Lawrence Borha each nailed two 3-pointers apiece to make the Rebels pay for sagging inside on Nevill.

“They did a good job of going into Luke, and whenever he gets the ball down low … we were all collapsing,” Adams said. “He was passing it back out and those guys were knocking down three’s. That’s how they got their lead on us and in this building it’s tough to come back.”

“Having any 7-footer who is NBA bound is definitely going to affect you,” UNLV forward Rene Rougeau said. “He was definitely the primary object on our scouting report. We tried to do a good job on him. We just have to do a better job on the role players the next time around.

“We would definitely like to play them again.”

Depending on how things shake out in the final 10 days of MWC play, that likely would occur in the semifinals on March 13 at the Thomas & Mack at 6 p.m. With the loss to the Utes, it looks like UNLV is headed to the 4 vs. 5 matchup on March 12 with slumping San Diego State (18-8, 8-5) the likely opponent.

UNLV coach Lon Kruger said he isn’t thinking ahead to the conference tournament or potential matchups for the Rebels.

“Oh no, all we’re thinking about is Air Force,” Kruger said of Wednesday night’s “Senior White Out Night” contest. “Where ever we end up in the tournament, we end up. … There’s still a lot to be determined. I would think we’re probably in (the 4 vs. 5 game). I don’t know who we would be playing at this point.”

One thing is certain. Barring a total collapse, it won’t be Utah.

SALT LAKE CITY — Utah (20-7, 11-2) used an 18-4 run to close out the first half en route to a 38-24 halftime lead and it proved to be too big of a deficit for the Rebels (20-8, 8-6) to overcome in a 70-60 loss to the Utes on Wednesday night at the Huntsman Center.

Luke Nevill had 19 points and grabbed 13 rebounds and Shaun Green added 12 points, including three 3-pointers late in the first half that keyed Utah’s 18-4 run.

UNLV trailed by double-digits for most of the second half but cut the Utah lead to two, 57-55, with 2:56 to go on a Rene Rougeau layup. But Utah guard Luka Drca answered with a big 3-pointer to put the Ute lead back up to five points, and UNLV never got any closer the rest of the way.

Rougeau led UNLV with 19 points and 4 steals while Tre’Von Willis added 14 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals.

With the loss, UNLV seems pretty much assured of playing in the 4 vs. 5 game in the Mountain West Conference Tournament quarterfinals on March 12 at the Thomas & Mack Center at 2:30 p.m. The Rebels’ likely opponent would be San Diego State.

SALT LAKE CITY — Things were looking pretty good for the UNLV Runnin’ Rebels when Rene Rougeau put in a rebound of a Tre’Von Willis miss to tie Wednesday night’s game with Utah, 20-20, with 5:58 to go in the first half at the Huntsmen Center.

But then the Utes, with senior forward Shaun Green and senior guard Lawrence Borha both draining two 3-pointers, went on a 18-4 spurt to end the half and lead the Rebels, 38-24.

Utah made 6-of-10 3-pointers (60.0 percent) in the first half including 3-of-5 by Green who tied 7-foot-2 center Luke Nevill for high-point honors with 11. Nevill also has already grabbed 9 rebounds and Utah holds a 21-12 edge on the boards.

Rougeau has been the lone bright spot for the Rebels with 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting to go along with 4 steals and 3 rebounds. Senior guard Wink Adams has scored just 3 points on 1-of-6 shooting. UNLV made just 11-of-30 shots (36.7 percent) in the first half.

SALT LAKE CITY — It says here that UNLV can begin making preparations for a third straight NCAA Tournament if the Runnin’ Rebels can knock off first place and well rested Utah (19-7, 10-2) tonight here at the Huntsmen Center.

UNLV (20-7, 8-5) is up to a No. 8 seed in this week’s Bracketology by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi following their big 75-74 win over BYU, completing a rare regular season sweep of the Cougars. Lunardi, who is usually within a team or two correctly predicting the 65-team field each year, has the Rebels playing Georgetown in Kansas City in a West Regional pod this week with the winner probably playing No. 1 seeded Oklahoma and Player of the Year shoe-in Blake Griffin.

Lunardi has four Mountain West teams in including BYU and Utah, which started the week with the No. 11 RPI in the nation according to collegerpi.com. If the Rebels win tonight, that would give them six wins against teams in the collegerpi.com Top 50 and three against teams in the Top 12 – 2 against No. 11 Utah and one against No. 12 Louisville on the road without their top player, Wink Adams. The Rebels also swept No. 30 BYU and knocked off No. 42 Arizona at the Thomas & Mack in December.

That’s a pretty impressive resume. UNLV also would have swept two teams from the Mountain West currently projected to be pretty good seeds in the NCAA Tourney in Utah and BYU.

The Rebels can expect the best shot from Luke Nevill and company tonight. Utah has had a full week off to prepare for this one since defeating Colorado State in overtime in Fort Collins, 89-79, on Feb. 18.

The headline in today’s Salt Lake Tribune also is bound to garner attention: “Murderers’ row.” It features pictures of Wink Adams, BYU’s Lee Cummard and New Mexico’s Tony Danridge, the top three players for Utah’s next three opponents. Both BYU and New Mexico are on the road. The Utes finish up with slumping TCU at home.

“We know everybody’s coming out, and they’re gunning for us,” Utah guard Lawrence Bohra said. “We have to be ready to take everybody’s best shot, and I think we are ready.”

The final statistics will show that Wink Adams had another big game against BYU with 22 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists. But the game ball … make that balls … for Saturday night’s key 75-74 win over the Cougars at the Thomas & Mack Center should go to a couple of UNLV bench players.

Sophomore Kendall Wallace (8 points, 5 rebounds) and senior swingman Mo Rutledge (13 points) both played huge roles in the victory which enabled the Rebels (20-7, 8-5) to complete a rare regular season sweep of the Cougars (20-6, 8-4) and climb back to within a half game of second place with three games to go.

BYU had just tied the game, 37-37, on a Lee Cummard dunk with 12:41 left when Wallace, emerged in a 1-for-14 3-point shooting slump over the last five games, nailed back-to-back difficult treys in a 16 second span to suddenly put the Rebels up by six, 43-37. UNLV never trailed again.

After Cummard answered with a 17-foot jumper of his own, Wallace then drove past the Cougar guard for another basket to put UNLV back ahead by six, 45-39.

All in all, Wallace scored eight points in just 54 seconds.

Rutledge hit a 3-pointer from left side of the key a few minutes later to up UNLV’s lead to eight, 51-43. He followed that up with a three-point play 45 seconds later that upped the Rebel lead to nine, 54-45.

Adams took it over from there, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers as the Rebels extended their lead to 12, 63-51, with 5:10 to go. Adams scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the final 17:20.

For the game, UNLV held a 21-6 edge in bench scoring.

“Mo came in and was able to post up some of the smaller guards and hit some free throws,” Adams said. “And when Kendall hit the two three’s back-to-back that really got everything started. It was definitely a big contribution off the bench.”

“(Wallace) was feeling it,” senior guard Rene Rougeau said. “He and Wink both went on their own little streaks … It was raining three’s.”

The victory gave UNLV just its second regular season sweep of BYU in school history and the first since 1998 when the two schools were both still members of the WAC.

“This is a good win in general,” Rougeau said. “We’re not worried about the sweep. We’re just thankful to come out with the win. … Coming off of that Wyoming loss, we definitely needed this one for sure.”

“A very big win,” Adams said. “BYU is a tough team to play whether its at their place or here. Whenever we play them it’s always a dogfight. Tonight was a big game especially coming off a loss.”

The Rebels made things interesting at the end of this one by converting just 7 of 14 free throw tries in the final 2:12 including the front end of a one-and-one by freshman guard Oscar Bellfield. Ironically, Bellfield, who was just 1-of-3 at the free throw line for the game, scored what proved to be the game-winning point on free throw with 7.3 seconds left that put UNLV up by four, 75-71.

Cummard made things very interesting, though, by hitting a trey with 3.5 seconds left. But BYU, which was out of timeouts, couldn’t call one to set up its defense. Instead, the Rebels quickly inbounded the ball downcourt to Adams who then dribbled around and ran out the clock before a Cougar could foul him.

“I’ll talk about the makes,” UNLV coach Lon Kruger said. “They gave us a one-point win. … It would have looked liked we made a lot more free throws if they didn’t bank a three in and throw (another) one in at the last. Give credit to BYU for doing that. Tonight it felt like we were getting a little better rhythm at the line. … I think we are getting ready to turn the corner at the line.”

UNLV shot 68.0 percent (17-of-25) from the line for the game.

The Rebels still find themselves in fifth place in the MWC with an 8-5 league mark but will have some company on Tuesday night after the Cougars (8-4) play at San Diego State (8-4). BYU and New Mexico, which also is 8-4, still have games remaining with first place Utah (10-2) as does UNLV on Wednesday night in Salt Lake City. And UNLV finishes the regular season on March 7 at San Diego State.

So there’s still plenty of basketball to be played. It should be a fun final two weeks to the finish line.

UNLV’s first home sellout since 1993 witnessed something that hasn’t been done in over a decade … a regular season sweep of BYU.

The Runnin’ Rebels (20-7, 8-5) climbed back within a half-game of the second place Cougars, San Diego State and New Mexico with a 75-74 victory before a crowd of 18,523 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The win completed UNLV’s first regular season sweep of the Cougars since 1998 when both teams were still both members of the WAC.

Wink Adams led the Rebels with 22 points and 7 rebounds while Mo Rutledge added 13 points. Kendall Wallace finished with 8 points but they were big ones midway through the second half when he connected on two long 3-pointers in a 16 second span that gave UNLV a 43-37 lead.

UNLV led by double-digits for most of the final seven minutes before BYU cut it to one on Lee Cummard hit a 3-pointer with 3.5 seconds left. But the Rebels successfully inbounded the ball to Adams who managed to dribble the clock out before the Cougars could foul him.

UNLV’s first home sellout crowd in over 16 years didn’t have a whole lot to cheer about in the first half on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center … until the final three minutes.

The Runnin’ Rebels, who jumped out to a quick 9-4 lead, managed just seven points over a 11 minute span after that as BYU rallied to take a 21-16 lead.

But UNLV ended the half with a 7-0 spurt over the final 2:36 to take a 23-21 halftime lead.

Wink Adams started the late streak with a pair of free throws. Joe Darger followed with a 3-pointer from the top of the key to tie it with 1:00 left and then Rene Rougeau gave UNLV the lead with a layup off a nice pass from Tre’Von Willis with just two ticks left on the clock.

Willis (6 points, 6 rebounds) and Darger (6 points, 2-of-3 3-pointers) led the Rebels. UNLV led despite shooting just 29.6 percent (8-of-27) from the floor. BYU wasn’t much better connecting on just 32.3 percent (10-of-31) of its shoots.

How much did Wednesday night’s loss at Wyoming have on the crowd for tonight’s much anticipated showdown with BYU?

None.

Tonight’s game officially sold out and the atmosphere is electric to say the least. So the Rebels have no excuse for a slow start tonight.

The crowd of 18,523 marks UNLV’s first home sellout since Jan. 23, 1993 against Georgetown.

UNLV can accomplish something that has been done just one time in school history with a victory over BYU on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Runnin’ Rebels (19-7, 7-5), who rallied for a rare 76-70 win over the Cougars (20-5, 8-3) at the Marriott Center on Jan. 21, have only swept the regular season series with BYU once and never in the 10-year history of the Mountain West Conference.

UNLV beat the Cougars twice in 1998 in the final year of the WAC, 76-63 at the Thomas & Mack and 84-76 in Provo. That was Steve Cleveland’s first year as head coach for the Cougars who finished just 9-21 that season and were coming off a dreadful 1-25 record a year earlier under Roger Reid.

Extra motivation for Lon Kruger’s squad? Not according to senior guard Rene Rougeau.

“We’re not worried about that at all,” Rougeau said after practice on Friday morning. “We’ve just got to win a game. It doesn’t matter who it is.”

Especially after a disappointing 77-68 road loss at Wyoming on Wednesday night. A regular season series sweep of BYU certainly wouldn’t hurt UNLV’s chances at attracting an NCAA at-large berth if it fails to claim its third straight Mountain West Conference Tournament title.

“A win is a win right now,” Rougeau said. “We’re not looking into anything like (the sweep). More than anything, it’s home court advantage. We know that we’ve really got to protect our home court and give the crowd something to cheer about and that’s what we’re focusing on doing.”

UNLV leads the all-time series, 15-13, and has won four of the last five meetings.

LARAMIE – Paging Dr. Phil. Do we have a case of split personalities for you.

The 2008-09 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels.

The team that won impressive road games this season at Big East heavyweight Louisville, WAC contender Nevada and BYU in the Marriott Center once again exhibited the dark side of its duo personas on Wednesday night here at the Arena-Auditorium, losing to woeful Wyoming, 77-68.

Thanks to the loss, the Rebels (19-7, 7-5) fell three full games behind Mountain West Conference leader Utah (19-7, 10-2) with just four games to go and completed what before the season seemed like the most unlikely of trifectas — losing road games to MWC bottom-feeders Colorado State, TCU and Wyoming.

Wednesday night’s loss to the Cowboys (15-10, 4-7), who had lost their previous four games by an average of 18.5 points per game, was a microcosm of the season.

The Rebels once again looked uninspired at the start, missed their first 13 3-point tries, and found themselves on the verge of getting blown out by a team they had just handled with ease (83-66) on Jan. 21 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

UNLV trailed by 17 points, 55-38, with 11:11 to go before the light seeming went on. The Rebels, who forced 24 turnovers in the game, went on a 20-6 run and cut the Cowboy lead to just three points, 61-58, on a Joe Darger 3-pointer with 3:37 left.

But that was close as UNLV would get. Wyoming guard Sean Ogirri came right back and drilled a 3-pointer from the right side of the key and the Rebels never got any closer the rest of the way.

Afterward, senior guard Wink Adams, who scored 18 points but was 6-of-16 from the floor, blamed his team’s early shooting woes on the thin air (elevation 7,220 feet). Really.

The altitude certainly didn’t affect Wyoming guard Brandon Ewing. The 6-foot-3 senior, who likely will win his third straight Mountain West Conference scoring crown, torched the Rebels for 29 points, including 5-of-8 3-pointers.

That’s the same Brandon Ewing who scored just 7 points in the first meeting against the Rebels.

“This team is tired of losing,” Ewing said. “We wanted to make a statement. Big-time players step up and in big-time games, and that’s what I wanted to do.”

And that’s what UNLV’s big-time players didn’t do. Again.

The Rebels, looking like a team lacking a true on-court leader in the Kevin Kruger or Curtis Terry mold, were plain awful offensively at the start, missing all 12 of their 3-point tries in the first half while shooting just 30.3 percent (10-of-33). Yet they only trailed by 10 points, 35-25, at intermission because they forced 15 first half turnovers.

“It’s real frustrating seeing that at the beginning of the game that it was there for the taking and we just didn’t attack,” senior guard Rene Rougeau said. “We settled for way too many jumpers tonight. It’s very frustrating.”

“It is very frustrating,” Darger said when asked about his team’s slow start. “Especially at this point of the season. Every game is huge for us and we came out and didn’t play well tonight. We’ve got to bounce back for BYU (on Saturday night).”

That’s what is whacky about this team. It wouldn’t surprise me to see them bounce back and rebound with a big win over the Cougars on Saturday night, then upset Utah in Salt Lake City before losing at home to winless Air Force.

The Rebels are this year’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of college basketball.

Here’s hoping it’s the good Doctor who shows up the rest of the season.

LARAMIE — Scratch that regular season Mountain West Conference title off the list of goals for the preseason favorite UNLV Runnin’ Rebels.

The cold-shooting Rebels (19-7, 7-5), once again playing down to the level of their competition, suffered another head-scratching Mountain West Conference loss, this time a 77-68 to Wyoming (15-10, 4-7) on Wednesday night at the Arena-Auditorium.

The latest road loss means UNLV, which fell three full games behind first place Utah (19-7, 10-2) with just four games to go, has lost on the road to three of the four lowest ranked teams in the league in TCU, the Cowboys and Colorado State.

Senior guard Brandon Ewing, held to just seven points in a 83-66 Wyoming loss to the Rebels in Las Vegas on Jan. 17, more than made up for it this time around with 29 points including 5-of-8 3-pointers.

Ewing, who is in good shape to claim his third straight MWC scoring crown, also became the second player in conference history to top the 2,000 point mark for his career joining San Diego State’s Brandon Heath.

UNLV forced 24 Wyoming turnovers in the contest but shot poorly, connecting on just 5-of-26 3-pointers (19.2 percent) and 35.5 percent overall from the floor. The Cowboys also held a huge 44-29 edge on the boards.

Wink Adams and Tre’Von Willis had 18 points each to lead the Rebels.

LARAMIE — It took 14 attempts but UNLV finally managed to extend its NCAA record for making a 3-pointer in a game to 732 games.

Wink Adams finally nailed a trey with 16:41 to go in the game to cut Wyoming’s lead to seven, 39-32. The Rebels had missed their first 13 tries behind the arc.

Wyoming still leads the game, 42-36, with 15:33 remaining.

LARAMIE — UNLV held Brandon Ewing to a season low 7 points in the first meeting between the two schools on Jan. 17 in Las Vegas, a 83-66 Rebel victory.

The 6-foot-3 senior from Chicago, shooting for his third straight Mountain West Conference scoring crown, is doing much better in tonight’s rematch at Arena-Auditorium here.

Ewing already has scored 16 points in the first half, including 3-of-4 3-pointers, in leading the Cowboys (14-10, 3-7) to a 35-25 halftime lead over the cold-shooting Rebels.

UNLV (19-6, 7-4) shot just 30.3 percent (10-of-33) from the floor and is 0-for-12 from 3-point range. The Rebels have made at least one trey in all 731 games since the NCAA adopted the rule in 1986-87, an NCAA record.

The Rebels are fortunate to be down by just 10 at intermission. Wyoming has already committed 15 turnovers which have resulted in 10 points for UNLV.

LARAMIE — One of the first things Lon Kruger’s Runnin’ Rebels saw as they exited their locker room at the Arena-Auditorium here tonight was a wall with the following message painted on it: “Welcome to 7,220 Feet — How’s Your Oxygen?”

That’s part of the home court advantage here for the Wyoming Cowboys (14-10, 3-7), who have lost just once here this year … to first place Utah, 80-70, on Feb. 7. The Pokes are 10-1 here this season.

The Runnin’ Rebels are well aware of the thin air they’ll have to overcome in defeating the Pokes.

“The first warning I got was about the altitude,” guard Tre’Von Willis, who is making his first trip to Laramie, said. “They gave me advice on eating well and making sure I get my rest. Hopefully we can go out there and just compete and focus hard and get a ‘W’.”

The Rebels have already played and won this year at Air Force which has an altitude of about 6,000 feet. So is it really that big of a deal?

“You can definitely feel the difference,” Willis said. “It’s later in the season and I think we’re in better shape right now, so we should be fine.”

–

A late start (8 p.m. MST) on a weeknight combined with a losing team doesn’t bode well for tonight’s attendance.

Just 25 minutes now before tipoff and there are about 100 people in the stands.

If it’s Monday it must mean a new Bracketology on espn.com from noted bracketologist Joe Lunardi.

Lunardi, who usually comes within a team or two of predicting the NCAA Tournament bracket which will officially be released on Sunday, March 15, continues to show the Mountain West Conference some love with four teams projected as in the tournament today. And yes, one of those big four is Lon Kruger’s Runnin’ Rebels.

This week Lunardi as UNLV as a No. 12 need in the Midwest Regional playing No. 5 UCLÅ in the Portland, Ore., pod. I’m sure Rebel fans would love that matchup … as long as Booker Turner wasn’t one of the officials.

Lunardi also has MWC leader Utah as a No. 8 seed playing Virginia Tech in the South Regional and Cal playing No. 11 seeded San Diego State. His fourth MWC team is BYU as a No. 11 seed playing Syracuse in Philadelphia in the East Regional.

Interestingly, Lunardi has New Mexico as his 7th team just out of the bracket. A strong finish by Steve Alford’s Lobos could mean five MWC teams in the tourney?

Of course, a lot can change in the next four weeks. UNLV, for instance, could suddenly find itself on the outside looking in with a road loss at struggling Wyoming on Wednesday night or a home loss to BYU on Saturday night.

Still, the Rebels have positioned themselves to make a nice run at no worse than an at-large bid with a strong regular season finish. And with as crazy as things have gone in the MWC this year, I wouldn’t want to put all my eggs into having to win the conference tourney this time around.