Fort Collins, CO – As one of those teams mentioned as being ranked UNLV when the two teams meet tonight in Mountain West Conference action at Moby Arena.
The Rams are an impressive 13-1 in Fort Collins so far this season and their 12 straight wins at home give them the fourth-longest home win streak in the country at the moment. With wins over New Mexico and San Diego State in conference helping to build their resume', the Rams are now 6-6 in league play and seven games over .500 for the entire season.
However, Colorado State did have a two-game win streak snapped on Saturday when it bowed to the Aztecs on the road in a 74-66 final, which means the Rams are now fifth in the conference standings.
As for the Runnin' Rebels, a team which is undefeated at home (16-0) in 2011-12, they managed to rebound from back-to-back defeats against TCU and New Mexico, although victories over the last two opponents were certainly expected. First, UNLV took care of Boise State by a 75-58 score a week ago, and then on Saturday the Rebels dismissed Air Force, 68-58, moving the team to 8-4 in conference, which has it tied with both San Diego State and New Mexico for first place with the MWC slate coming to an end this weekend.
UNLV won the first meeting of the season earlier this month by a score of 82-63 at home, which means the all-time series now numbers 33-9 in favor of the Rebels.
Chace Stanback took charge against the Falcons on Saturday night as he logged a game-high 21 points, shooting 5-of-7 behind the three-point line, and also coming up with eight rebounds in the double-digit win. Anthony Marshall accounted for 15 points and five assists and Justin Hawkins 11 points off the bench for the hosts as they survived a whopping 21 turnovers in the matchup. Mike Moser managed to clear 11 rebounds, but his seven points were certainly disappointing. Moser, who is averaging a double-double for the program with 14.2 points and 11.0 rebounds per outing, did make six steals in the meeting, but those were offset by six turnovers. Stanback has stepped up his game by producing 13.6 ppg, thanks to his 47.7 percent accuracy behind the three-point line. As a unit UNLV has made good on 37.2 percent out on the perimeter, connecting on 68 more three-pointers than the competition over the course of 30 games. Because of that dominance on the perimeter the Rebels are still outscoring the opposition by more than 12 points per contest.
The Rams held a lead against San Diego State on the road as late as the 8:11 mark of the second half, but the visitors simply didn't get as many cracks at the free-throw line in order to keep up. The Aztecs ended up outscoring CSU at the charity stripe by a margin of 20-9 in the eight-point decision. Dorian Green and Wes Eikmeier tried to keep Colorado State in contention with 14 points apiece, followed by Pierce Hornung with 11 points and a team-high nine rebounds before fouling out. Over the course of 12 conference games Eikmeier is leading the team in scoring with 14.3 ppg, although his 37.3 percent shooting from the floor doesn't scare too many defenders these days. Green accounts for another 12.8 ppg in league action and has combined with Eikmeier to knock down 33 three-point baskets, but still the perimeter defense for the Rams continues to be exposed with opponents getting off 88 more three-point tries over the course of those dozen outings.
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