Rebels seniors left with lackluster home finale

By Ryan Greene

Thursday, March 5, 2009 | 2:10 a.m.

One of the loudest roars from the crowd of 14,943 in the Thomas & Mack Center on Wednesday was for former Rebel great Greg Anthony.

The CBS color commentator briefly stood and raised his hand to wave to the crowd during a media timeout in the second half of UNLV's 46-43 Senior Night victory over Air Force.

Surely, the pageantry and emotion of the final home game of the season conjured up memories of Anthony's swan song in the Mack, a 114-86 drubbing of UC-Irvine back on Feb. 23, 1991.

As was the case for most Rebels games back in that era, it was a true show, one of 14 times that season in which Anthony's squad topped the century mark.

Memories may have come back for Anthony, but similarities? Surely, they did not.

Instead, UNLV's five current departing seniors will look on one sluggish night that was anything but a show.

"A great crowd," said senior forward René Rougeau, who was limited to 23 minutes after getting into early foul trouble. "The fans were tremendous. If anything, I just wish we would have given them a better show. We played great basketball for a while there, then just got lackadaisical."

The scene was set for a memorable night, between the 'White Out,' which was executed by the fans, the 0-14 conference opponent making the visit to Vegas and the pregame ceremonies welcoming Rougeau & Co. to center court flanked by their family members.

Instead, the Rebels fell behind the Falcons in an offensively absent first half, trailing at one point by as many as eight points at 19-11.

Between the end of the first half and the beginning of the second, UNLV quietly ripped off an 18-2 run, then led by 12 points at 41-29 with 8:17 to play.

A couple of awkward 3-pointers from Andrew Henke in the closing moments had Air Force back within two points with less than a minute to play, leaving Wink Adams having to hit an awkward layup to ultimately ice the deal.

"I'll always remember him for hitting big shots time after time," a sentimental Rougeau continued. "There's no reason ... we were up by nine, 12 points at one point, and to let them come back like that. That should never happen."

For all intents and purposes, Wednesday had the makings of a night for all five seniors -- including walk-on Rob Ketchum, who played two first half minutes -- to make some memories.

The rematch with Air Force, in reality, was much like the first meeting back on Jan. 21, in which UNLV triumphed, 59-38. It was a slowed-down affair without much offensive rhythm.

Instead of shooting 41.7 from the floor like last time, though, UNLV fired at a 30 percent clip, going 15-of-50.

"I think we made a lot of plays for each other, I think we just missed a lot of shots," said senior forward Joe Darger, who scored nine points on 2-of-10 shooting in his regular season home finale. "We still had a lot of good looks, I think. Maybe some of the players were a little nervous with it being Senior Night and everything. I don't really know why the shots weren't falling, exactly."

But, still ...

"Yeah, any time you play a game like that, it definitely bothers you," Darger said. "You've just got to look at that, look at some film and look at some of the things we can help getting better at."