Ragged win helps Rebels find depth.

Steve Carp

Wednesday, Dec. 31, 1997 | 12:01 p.m.

On a night when the best shooter on the floor was Rob Brisendine, a fan who made four shots including one from midcourt to win the use of a Saturn automobile for a year, UNLV and Nevada-Reno would have been hard-pressed to win a game of H-O-R-S-E Tuesday even if you spotted them the H, the O and the R.

Both teams shot the ball miserably all night. But in the end, the Wolf Pack was a little worse at 32 percent and the Rebels, who shot just 35 percent, ended the second phase of their 1997-98 season Tuesday with a 62-50 win at the Thomas & Mack Center.

"We win with 19 turnovers and going 1 for 13 from (3-point range)," UNLV coach Bill Bayno said. "It's a great win because of the emotional loss (Saturday) to UCLA."

Phase Three begins Sunday at Tulane when 6-5 UNLV regains the services of 6-foot-11 senior center Keon Clark after the NCAA suspended him for the first 11 games for accepting extra benefits last spring from a couple of Florida sports agents.

Fortunately for the Rebels, Clark's understudies -- Kaspars Kambala and Issiah Epps -- played the leading role like stars. Epps had the best performance in his brief five-game stint as a Rebel, scoring 14 points and grabbing 13 rebounds while playing 27 solid minutes in his first start.

Kambala, who also had a double-double with 16 points and 11 boards, saved UNLV early by sinking 10 of 11 free throws as the offense struggled mightily.

"I never thought he'd score 14 points all year," Bayno said of Epps. "I'm just excited for Issiah because he has been through so much."

Epps said he felt comfortable offensively for the first time and he didn't have to think about what to do once he got the ball.

"It took awhile for me to learn the offense," he said. "But when I hit my first shot, that got me going. I played hard and I was in a groove. Everything came natural tonight. I didn't think, I just played on instinct."

Kambala and Epps played well off each other. They both hit the boards hard, sometimes colliding. But they were a force inside and, with UNR unable to make shots from the perimeter, the Wolf Pack had little chance.

"I didn't know how much I would have so I tried to start quickly," said Kambala, who was suffering from a touch of the flu but still managed to play 34 minutes. "Issiah really stepped up and helped. They have big guys up front and we needed him tonight and he came through for us."

Together, they dominated with 24 rebounds, 10 on the offensive glass.

"Yeah, they beat us inside," UNR coach Pat Foster said. "But when you go 2 for 23 from (3-point range), you're not going to hand out any roses for that.

"We just couldn't hit. What can you say? You don't make shots, you're not going to win. Especially on the road."

The Wolf Pack (4-5) shot just 32 percent from the floor and the 2-for-23 effort from 3-point range was as bad as Foster can remember seeing in his 19 years of coaching.

"I've never lived through any shooting like that," he said. "We couldn't hit one under any circumstances."

UNLV's matchup zone gave UNR enough of a problem that even when the Wolf Pack got open looks, its timing was so off, the shots had little chance of falling.

"I think the difference was they settled for a lot of threes and we posted the ball," said Bayno, whose team made just 1 of 13 three-point tries to barely keep the school's streak alive at 367 games in which it has made at least one from long distance.

Once again, UNLV had no offensive rhythm and it was forcing the ball inside when nobody was open. The Rebels were impatient and in their attempt to force tempo, prevented themselves from getting good looks at the basket.

It led to a disjointed attack. And had it not been for Kambala's efforts at the foul line, the Rebels would have been in big trouble.

After starting the game in the freezer, UNLV's offense eventually upgraded to refrigerator status as it managed to convert seven field goals in the first half. Only one shot came outside the paint, Corky Ausborne's 3-pointer from the left corner with 5:55 to go.

Still, despite the lack of offense, the Rebels led by as many as five with 5:18 to go in the half before holding on for a 30-28 halftime lead.

The Wolf Pack was unable to capitalize on its 11-4 start as it too struggled to score from the perimeter. UNR tried to be patient, then tried to pick up the pace, but nothing seemed to work.

UNR went 15-plus minutes with just one field goal while the Rebels eventually found a rhythm as Mark Dickel came off the bench to run the halfcourt offense. The result was a 21-5 run to put it away and send the announced crowd of 14,097 home happy.

"It's hard sometimes to pick it up," Dickel said of taking what the other team's defense gives you. "We've got to be patient and not force things."

And once the Rebels took their time, picked spots when to run the transition game and didn't rush shots, they started converting. Tyrone Nesby shook off a slow first half-plus to finish with 16 points as he and Brian Keefe appeared to get a little chemistry going midway through the second half.

"Thirty-five seconds is a long time," Epps said. "If we go side to side with the ball, be patient and look for the open man like we did in the second half, we'll get good shots.

"Everyone on this team is unselfish. We just have to keep playing together and look for each other and not force things. That's how you get everyone into the flow."