CS Long Beach No. 34 on UNLV’s List, 122-75 : College basketball: Johnson scores 22 of his game-high 34 points in first half for No. 1 Runnin’ Rebels.

Nevada Las Vegas got so far ahead so quickly against Cal State Long Beach Monday night that the 12,007 fans in the Long Beach Arena--the second-largest 49er home crowd in history--were forced to simply enjoy the nation’s top-ranked team and wonder how big the final score would be.

At the end, it was 122-75, which wasn’t quite as bad as the 114-63 defeat Long Beach suffered at Las Vegas last month.

But it still was complete domination as the Rebels (23-0 overall and 14-0 in the Big West Conference) won their 34th consecutive game over two seasons.

Larry Johnson, who was taken out of the game with 7:58 to play, scored 22 points in the first half for Las Vegas and finished with 34, one shy of his career high. He also had 15 rebounds.

Suspecting that the Rebels would be down for this game, Coach Jerry Tarkanian said he gave them a motivational talk at the hotel Monday afternoon. That seemed to work, but Tarkanian still said, “I don’t think we were playing with the same intensity on defense that we have had recently.”

But the defense was good enough to hold Long Beach (9-14, 5-9) to 38% shooting.

Overwhelming the 49ers with a barrage of three-point shots, dunks and layups, Las Vegas got off to a 16-1 start. The 49ers didn’t score a field goal in the first four minutes.

After wild Long Beach shots and turnovers, the Rebels would race alone down the court for easy baskets.

In the first half they had five dunks and six layups. The times they had to play their half-court game, they worked the ball inside and then quickly passed it out for six three-pointers.

Lucious Harris tried to get the 49ers back in the game with 14 first-half points. He made four in a row to cut the lead to 40-24, but Las Vegas ran off 12 consecutive points--seven by Johnson--for its biggest lead of the half, 52-24.

The Rebels shot 60.9% from the field in the first half and improved to 66% in the second half.

At halftime, with the Rebels ahead, 60-35, Anderson Hunt had 16 of his eventual 25 points.

Harris scored 28 points to lead the 49ers.