Rebels enjoy Peay soup

Victoria Sun

Thursday, Dec. 16, 1999 | 10:59 a.m.

The starting five players on a basketball team usually get the kudos for a victory.

Most of the time it's well deserved.

But it's the bench that plays a sizable role in the success of any team, especially if the team is playing two games in four days.

It's the bench players who must hustle in and out of a game without losing a step when the coach wants to give a starter a break or give the team a boost.

And it's the bench players who are asked to push the starters in practice, even if they reap no benefits during the game.

An admirable performance by the bench and a stingy defense helped UNLV (6-1) cruise to an 87-66 victory over Austin Peay (3-3) in front of an announced crowd of 10,778 Wednesday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Rebels' big man Kaspars Kambala led the team with a game-high 23 points and 13 rebounds while forward Sylvester Dotson came off the bench for a career-high 11 points.

In previous games, Dotson, a 6-foot-7 transfer student from Kilgore College in Texas, has shown that he's tough on the boards and a solid defender.

Fortunately for the Rebels, Dotson finally showed his offensive skills that were missing in previous games.

"Pretty much, I was just happy to be out there helping my team win games," Dotson said. "I mean, I wouldn't say I was tentative before, but I was feeling it more tonight.

"I hit my first couple of shots, after that, everything was good."

After UNLV jumped to a 23-8 lead, Austin Peay cut the lead to seven with a 13-5 run.

Bayno inserted Dotson with 5:04 left in the half. Two minutes later, he took over.

He scored all 11 of his points in the first half. He hit a short turnaround jumper, a five-footer and a layup off a nice spin move to propel UNLV to a 44-25 halftime lead as the Rebels knocked off some rust.

The Rebels' last game was a 102-78 loss to North Carolina Dec. 4 in the Food Lion MVP Classic.

Since the team has been home, Bayno said the coaching staff has spent more time working with all of the role players, including Dotson, and it showed against the Governors.

"He got extra work in and just by doing extra work, battling and pushing (tonight was the result)," Bayno said. "We talked about what coach (Max) Good does with the guys who don't get a lot of minutes.

"I just had coach Good and our staff be committed to those guys and stay after with them to do extra work. He (Dotson) did and it paid off.

"We told Dot, 'you've probably got the toughest job of anyone on the team because we're going to need you in certain situations.' It's tough. If everybody's playing well in a close game, he's gotta be ready and take advantage of one or two minutes."

Although he had much help from his teammates, the toughest assignment of the night belonged to Donovan Stewart.

Stewart and the Rebels had to defend against the Governors' Trenton Hassell, who entered the game averaging 21.6 points and 8.6 rebounds.

The 6-5 forward was a high school teammate of former Rebel and current Phoenix Sun Shawn Marion. Hassell is considered NBA material.

With Stewart and company swarming him every time he touched the ball, Hassell made only 6-of-15 shots for 17 points and pulled down seven rebounds.

"Donovan did a great job on him," Bayno said. "Six-for-15, that's as good as you can do with a guy like that. We had guys contesting his shots and forcing him to take bad shots. I thought we did a good job against him."

Trevor Diggs, Chris Richardson, Vince Booker and Issiah Epps also deserve credit for their roles off the bench.

Diggs was taken out of the lineup for being late for a practice, but responded with 11 points and a career-high seven assists in 29 minutes.

In a somewhat sloppy stretch during the second half when both teams were trading baskets and neither was able to make a defensive stop, Diggs hit a 3-pointer, then stole the ball on the other end for an easy layup.

Richardson and Epps combined for five rebounds and two blocks while helping out defensively with their hustle. Booker scored two points, had three assists and one turnover in eight minutes.

For Bayno, being able to utilize his bench against Austin Peay was important because the Rebels will play 14th-ranked Oklahoma State on Saturday in the Las Vegas Showdown. All of his starters will need fresh legs for that one.

Should Bayno need to go to the bench, Dotson already knows his role.

"You have to be ready to play," he offered. "I can't make no mistakes, especially coming off the bench.

"Can't nobody play a perfect game. So I'm pretty much loose when I come in."