Las Vegas » Now, the Utes know how the Cougars felt.

Just three days after the UNLV Rebels came roaring back to bury Brigham Young on the road, they did it to Utah at home, erasing a 12-point first-half deficit and dashing to a 75-65 victory in front of 15,080 fans at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday to knock the Utes out of first place in the Mountain West Conference.

"I don't think we handled adversity very well in the second half," coach Jim Boylen said.

Didn't look like it.

Everything the Utes managed to do so impressively well in the first half -- shoot, rebound, defend -- turned sour in the second.

Suddenly, the Utes couldn't buy a basket, couldn't get a call and couldn't stop the Rebels. It was almost identical to the way the Cougars came undone against the Rebels at home earlier in the week, right down to the 45-27 second-half margin, and it kept the Utes winless against the Rebels in their last six meetings in Las Vegas.

"It's frustrating," forward Shaun Green said, "because we feel like we come down here and we play so well for a certain amount of the game, and then I don't know what happens. We just make a couple mistakes here and there, and they make us pay for it, every time."

UNLV's Wink Adams was a big part of the problem, erupting for 10 of his 14 points on a series of pull-up jumpers and fallaways in the first six minutes of the second half, after scoring just two against Utah's Lawrence Borha before halftime. By the time his personal highlight film was finished, the fans were going crazy and the Rebels were on the march.

"Guys were just way more aggressive about getting to the basket," Adams said.

But it was hardly all Adams.

UNLV's Tre'Von Willis scored 22 points and Rene Rougeau added 14, while Riverton native Joe Darger did a good job in a small lineup jostling with Utah's Luke Nevill, often fouling him quickly instead of giving up an easy basket. Twice down the stretch, referees disallowed baskets by Nevill that could have helped the Utes, ruling that Darger fouled the 7-foot-2 center before he began shooting.

"We just kind of gave in a bit," Nevill said. "We weren't mentally there."

The Utes were slowly losing their grip on the game from the moment they allowed Willis to bury a three-pointer in the final seconds of the first half - the Utes led 38-30 at halftime - but really came unglued after UNLV's Mareceo Rutledge buried back-to-back three-pointers that completed the Rebel comeback and gave them a 53-50 lead.

"We were just going to make Rutledge beat us, and he made the two big shots," Green said. "I think that changed the whole game."

Green tied it again with a three-point answer, but the Utes failed to score again for five minutes, while the Rebels took off on an 8-0 run and took control.

The loss dropped the Utes to 12-7 overall and 3-2 in the Mountain West, while the Rebels improved to 16-4 overall and 4-2 in the league - perhaps re-establishing themselves as the championship favorite.

"There's no shame losing on the road, in this league," Boylen said. "Now, do I like the way we lost? I don't. We're going to work on it and get better. They were good. They made some plays in the second half. We, I thought, got a little undisciplined in the second half defensively, and a little undisciplined offensively."