Rooks grab rare win over NBA sophomores

By Fran Blinebury, for NBA.com
Posted Saturday February 13, 2010 12:52AM

DALLAS - (NBA.com exclusive) -- As if their season-long race for the first year honors wasn't already close enough, Tyreke Evans and Brandon Jennings brought their duel to the T-Mobile Rookie Challenge.

This is, after all, Texas and it was only fitting to have a High Noon type showdown, even if it was on Friday night and even if they were on the same team.

Evans rolled up 26 points, six rebounds and five assists, Jennings scored 22 points with eight assists and six rebounds and together they led the Rookies to a 140-128 win over the Sophomores.

The still-wet-behind-the-ears bunch ended a string of seven straight wins by the Sophomores and was the first time the Rookies came out on top since 2002.

Russell Westbrook of Oklahoma City scored 40 points for the Sophomores. His 40-point game came a year after Kevin Durant, this year an assistant coach for the rookies, became the first in the game to break the 40-point mark with a record 46.

When it was over, fans sitting near mid-court at the American Airlines Center stood and chanted "MVP! MVP! MVP!" at San Antonio Spurs rookie DeJuan Blair, who played like a human bowling ball and rumbled his way to 22 points and 23 rebounds.

But it was Evans, Sacramento Kings' top draft pick, who officially won the MVP trophy and graciously offered to share it with Blair.

"I mean, he set the tone for us," said Evans. "He started getting the rebounds for us before the game started. He said to everyone to just get out of the way, because he was going to get every rebound and that's what he did, so that's why I wanted to share it with him."

However, for most of the night, it was Evans and Jennings, the pair of nonpareil point guards who set the pace and the tone for the Rookies offense with a game-within-the-game of can-you-top-this in a close-up continuation of their season-long battle for Rookie of the Year honors.

Milwaukee's Jennings, of course, got all of the early headlines when he dropped in 55 points in a game against the Golden State Warriors on Nov. 14. But since the first month of the season, Evans has come on strong to make his case, leading all rookies in scoring with 20.9 points per game.

The splinter-thin Jennings, who said before the game that he was going to try to break the assist record, drilled the first shot he took -- a 22-footer from the left side -- and wound up instead with the most field goals (11-for-23).

Evans spent most of his night getting position down low and scoring with an assortment of pretzel twist drives, slithering through traffic on one side of the hoop and flipping in improbable shots while coming out on the other side. He shot 11-for-15 and was often too strong for everyone -- even the big men -- down low.

"He probably has it (rookie of the year) and that's fine," Jennings said. "He's putting up big numbers for his team and right now I'm just focusing on making the playoffs. I have a chance to lead my team to the playoffs as a rookie point guard and that's something big right there. Derrick Rose did it last year."

Jennings said helping get the Bucks into the playoffs should help his case.

"Yeah, I think so," he said. "Even though we are in the East, it's still the NBA and you still have to go out there and compete every day."

Evans' Kings are struggling at 18-34 near the bottom of the Western Conference standings.

"I don't know," Evans said. "Brandon is actually playing pretty good. We just wanted to go out there and get the win. But we talked about the Rookie of the Year race between me and him and we just said we're both playing good and whoever gets it, gets it. We'll congratulate each other and go from there."

• Rookies: --
• Sophomores: --

• Rookies: --
• Sophomores: --

• Lead Changes: 15
• Times Tied: 10

• Arena: American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX
• Officials: #67 John Goble, #65 Sean Wright, #60 David Guthrie
• Attendance: 19200
• Duration: 1:47