Jasper’s 85-second flurry highlights scrimmage

By Rob Miech

Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.

There was a stretch at the start of the fourth and final 5-minute UNLV basketball scrimmage Wednesday afternoon that would have made any Rebels fan salivate.

Oscar Bellfield, who was on all four winning teams, had already put on a show inside the Cox Pavilion practice gym, and Darris Santee produced a solid performance that is becoming common.

But the star of the day, with three officials controlling the action and coaches keeping score, was junior point guard Derrick Jasper, the Kentucky transfer who will be the rudder of the Rebels this season.

Until that flurry, Jasper has been mostly directing traffic and deferring to others over the past week and a half. This time, he took over the action and dominated.

A closer look at the four scrimmages:

Game 1 – White 13, Black 7

Bellfield, the sophomore guard, eventually scored the game’s first points with a 3-pointer from the top of the key for the White squad and he didn’t back down.

He nailed a pull-up jumper, another 3-point shot and then he capped the scoring with a tear-drop flick-in shot. Those were 10 of his 15 total points in the four scrimmages.

Game 2 – White 18, Black 9

The White team raced out to a 9-0 lead on Bellfield’s 3-pointer from the left side.

Jasper’s layin, Tre’Von Willis’s free-throw points, a three-point play by Shaw and Willis’s coast-to-coast layup put Bellfield in position to bring down the hammer.

Anthony Marshall, the rookie guard out of Mojave High, put the Black on the scoreboard when he sailed in for a layup, drew the foul and sank the ensuing free throw with 1:43 left.

But the White peeled away, again, when Willis stripped Todd Hanni of the ball and zipped in for an easy layin, and Santee canned a jumper along the right baseline.

Santee topped the scoring for the White when he hopped over teammate Brice Massamba to put in Willis’s missed jumper.

Game 3 – White 13, Black 9

Just as he was being recognized for trimming down in the summer, and looking lean and mean, Massamba was sidelined again when he tumbled to the court with 32 seconds left.

He had been defending Bellfield when the fell over, with another Rebel. Massamba rose, clutching his left knee, and he gingerly walked to the sideline to trainer Dave Tomchek.

Massamba, a sophomore power forward from Sweden via Findlay College Prep, has had knee and Achilles’ tendon problems in the past.

He did not participate in the rest of the scrimmage. With an ice wrap around his left knee, Massamba stood to the side and watched Jasper start Game 4 with a flourish.

The Black team battled in Game 3, as Kendall Wallace’s 3-pointer gave it a 6-3 advantage, but Marshall answered by stripping the ball from Jasper and scoring inside.

And Shaw hit a 3-pointer to give the White an 8-6 edge. Freshman guard Justin Hawkins drilled a 3-pointer from the left corner, off a sweet feed from Santee, to make it 11-6.

Wallace answered with a 3-pointer to get the Black within two points when the Massamba Tumble occurred.

Bellfield finished the game with two free-throw points for the White.

Game 4 – White 16, Black 10

This is what UNLV fans have been waiting for since they heard Jasper, a California native, was leaving Kentucky to come back to the west.

Twenty-five seconds into the game, he finished off a move with a two-handed dunk.

Carlos Lopez had drawn a double team in the right post, and he deftly passed to Jasper, who was cutting into the lane from the left side.

On the next possession, Jasper used a keen hesitation move on the left side to breeze by Tyler Norman and slip in a reverse layup on the right side with his right hand.

After Bellfield missed a jumper, Jasper sank a 3-pointer along the right baseline. It all looked easy and it was within the context of the offense, and UNLV fans no doubt will be salivating for more.

Hawkins stole a pass and fed the ball to Bellfield, who gave it back to Hawkins so he could convert a layin that gave the White a 9-2 lead.

Then Bellfield darted in through the left side and fed Lopez for an easy bucket, and the rout was on.

The Black squad made it respectable at the end when Steve “Chopper” Jones made a three-point play, Willis stripped Shaw of the ball and sped down for an easy layup and then Willis sank a 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Santee (6-of-8 from the field) and Bellfield (5-8) finished with 15 points apiece, Wallace had 12, and Willis and Jasper (5-6) each tallied 11.