UNLV’s Anthony Marshall, Quintrell Thomas have flashes of strong play in scrimmage at UCLA

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012 | 12:37 a.m.

Here’s all you need to know about the UNLV basketball team’s Saturday afternoon scrimmage against host UCLA: The game was closed to the public and media, and no score or stats were kept.

And, in following NCAA rules, Rebels coach Dave Rice had to be vague in his description of the game. He wasn’t even allowed to mention UNLV’s opponent.

If the scoreboard was running, however, Rice suspects his team — which is ranked No. 18 in the Associated Press preseason poll — would have lost.

“We didn’t play with a sense of urgency we needed to play with for being ranked that high in the preseason,” Rice said.

The scrimmage followed the same script as a regular season contest with 40 minutes of play and a full complement of television timeouts. Rice experimented with a variety of lineups and player rotations in preparation for the Nov. 12 season opener against visiting Northern Arizona.

Rice couldn’t go into specifics highlights for his players but said senior point Anthony Marshall had a strong game.

“Anthony Marshall has made great strides in terms of being a playmaker and running our team,” Rice said.

Rice added senior center Quintrell Thomas provided a physical presence on the inside and said the trio of freshmen — Anthony Bennett, Savon Goodman and Katin Reinhardt — played well, too.

The scrimmage turned out being the preseason test for which Rice was looking. Not only was the scrimmage a road game against an equally talented team, it gave the players a chance to face the adversity of not performing their best.

“The expectation for our team is we’ll be better (after today),” Rice said. “It was just a scrimmage. At the end of the day, our record is still 0-0.”

Rice won’t have to be so vague on Wednesday night. That’s when UNLV hosts Dixie State at 7 p.m. in their final tune-up for next week’s season opener.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21.