Rebels face Hassell against Austin Peay

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, Dec. 15, 1999 | 10:05 a.m.

When the UNLV men's basketball team hosts Austin Peay tonight at 7:35, stopping the Governors' Trenton Hassell will be a top priority.

Through five games, Hassell leads Austin Peay (3-2) with 21.6 points and 8.2 rebounds a game.

One of the Rebels (5-1) who will have the daunting task of slowing him down is Donovan Stewart.

After coming off the bench against Princeton and North Carolina, Stewart will be re-inserted into the starting lineup in place of Danny Brotherson.

Brotherson started the last two games and has been hampered by a sore left arch.

"I am going to approach this game the same as any other game," Stewart said. "I want to play hard and I'll be playing against a great player.

"I look at it as a challenge to try to stop his flow. Most of their offense is run through him."

For the Rebels, finding their own offensive flow will be another priority.

The last time the team played was on Dec. 4 in the championship game of the Food Lion MVP Classic in Charlotte, N.C., which resulted in a 102-78 loss to North Carolina.

Since then, the team has spent its time off recovering from the loss and focusing on improving its defense.

Only time will tell if the practices will pay off.

"It's gotta carry over (into the game) now," Bayno said. "Last week, we had a below-average practice, two great practices and two good practices.

"(Tuesday) was great. What I'm trying to do is to get them to be great every day. That's what I'm trying to challenge them to do."

Another challenge for the team will be shaking off the rust from the time off.

Because of the National Finals Rodeo that was held at the Thomas & Mack through last Sunday, the floor of the arena was not ready for the Rebels to practice on until Tuesday. So the team spent the rest of the time in the North gym.

"It's always good to play at home," UNLV center Kaspars Kambala said. "We had one good game, one not-so-good game (in North Carolina).

"You want to come back home and win. It's important for everybody to really come out and play strong because if one guy starts slacking off, two or three guys will pick up on that. We want to come out every minute looking to play hard all the time."

This is the first meeting between the schools and although the Rebels are favored to win, Bayno is wary of the Governors.

"What sums it up best is they manhandled Indiana State by 14; the same Indiana State beat a good Indiana team," Bayno said. "Anybody can beat anybody at this level if you're not ready to play.

"We don't want to learn the hard way."