12-man rotation nearly led to Bruins’ demise

Steve Carp

Monday, Dec. 14, 1998 | 9:29 a.m.

LOS ANGELES -- He's used to the ride by now. So watching his team blow 14-point leads no longer makes UCLA coach Steve Lavin's stomach queasy.

Because he has such a deep and talented team, Lavin plays as many as 12 players. And because he's trying to make everyone happy, it sometimes costs the Bruins continuity and opens the door for the opposition to come back.

UNLV took advantage of that by scoring 34 points in the final 13 minutes of the first half to overcome a 20-6 deficit and tie the game at 40-40.

The Rebels used a fast start in the second half to lead by as many as 13 with 13 minutes to play before a renewed UCLA defensive effort allowed the offense to catch up.

So the blessing which can sometimes become a curse in the end became a blessing for the 15th-ranked Bruins. They were fresh enough to pull out a 72-67 win Saturday at Pauley Pavilion.

"You've got to be patient with them," Lavin said of a team that has just one senior has 12 underclassmen playing the majority of the minutes. "At times, you have to say to them when they make mistakes, 'It's OK. It's a battle. Keep competing.'

"We're so young, you almost expect these swings. I realize there's going to be bumps in the road. You hope it eventually smooths out."

Lavin can't expect his 5-2 team to always overcome swings of 27 points, which was the case with the Rebels. But he said there was lots to be learned from a game like this.

"This is what we call a 'grinder' game. You're going to get a lot of grinder games in the Pac-10 schedule."

Marion mugged

He had just posted his second consecutive career-high scoring performance, but Shawn Marion wasn't celebrating. He was steamed.

The talented 6-7 junior pointed to two big calls which went against UNLV that cost the Rebels a chance of pulling off the upset of UCLA. One was a traveling call on Kevin Simmons, the other a hack job on Simmons in the key late in the game that resulted in a turnover and a UCLA basket.

"When they called Kevin for a walk, we were up five or seven," Marion said. "That was a big turning point."

As for the holding foul on Simmons that wasn't called and led to a turnover, Marion said, "We got robbed. That was clearly a foul and they didn't call it."

Simmons responds

Mark Dickel wasn't the only angry Rebel in Pauley Pavilion Saturday. Kevin Simmons, who played a few miles down the road at UC Irvine for a couple of years before transferring to UNLV, wasn't pleased with the way things were going for him.

After a rough start, Simmons settled down and played well, scoring 15 points and gabbing eight rebounds.

"I was taking shots I felt I can make and they weren't dropping," he said. "So I got a little angry with myself. I didn't want to see us get embarrassed here."

Hoop du jour

UNLV made just one of its last 12 field goal attempts, though the Rebels had several good looks late, especially senior guard Brian Keefe. One of Keefe's 3-point attempts went halfway down before spinning out. "We got the shots we wanted," coach Bill Bayno said of the final few attempts to tie or regain the lead. ... It was a rough day for sophomore center Kaspars Kambala, who failed to pull down a defensive rebound even though UNLV was in a matchup zone with him in the middle. Kambala also had four turnovers and had a tough time defending in the post as UCLA flashed its quick forwards, JaRon Rush and Jerome Moiso, into Kambala's area for virtually uncontested shots. ... UCLA has now won all four games in this brief series, including two at Pauley, where 9,855 showed up Saturday.