Shooting woes lead to UNLV’s demise

Victoria Sun

Monday, Dec. 20, 1999 | 9:43 a.m.

In baseball, the phrase "hitting is contagious" resonates throughout a clubhouse after a big victory.

The same can be said of shooting and making shots in basketball.

On the flip side, missing shots can also be transmitted throughout the team like an unwanted flu bug.

That's what happened to the UNLV men's basketball team Saturday night against 14th-ranked Oklahoma State.

Rebel after Rebel hoisted up 3-point attempts in front of a despondent crowd of 12,693 at the Thomas & Mack Center, but to no avail.

Most shots were tossed up at the right time in hopes of cutting the Cowboys' insurmountable lead. A few were lobbed up in a panic.

Either way, only three of UNLV's 26 3-point attempts found the bottom of the net, allowing the Cowboys (9-0) to ride off with a 89-75 victory in the second game of the Las Vegas Showdown.

The loss dropped the Rebels to 6-2 with their only other loss coming to then-No. 2 North Carolina.

A win for UNLV would have meant positive implications for the team's chances of getting into the NCAA Tournament in March.

A loss showed why the team needs to put a few things on its Christmas wish list -- mainly a healthy Kenny Dye and possibly a Lou Kelly to help take some of the pressure off its only shooter at the moment, Trevor Diggs.

Diggs made only 2-of-12 3-pointers against the Cowboys and has been struggling to find a rhythm in the last couple of games.

"He got good looks," UNLV head coach Bill Bayno said. "I thought he got a bunch of wide open shots.

"I don't think he forced that many. He's a shooter, he's a scorer, I believe in him. I told all our guys we competed, we played hard. It's just the bottom fell out. Time after time we'd come up empty."

With Dye out with a shoulder sprain he incurred against Princeton on Dec. 3 and the status of junior college transfer Kelly still in question, there is a lot of pressure on Diggs to produce.

But Diggs and Kaspars Kambala should not be the Rebels' sole scoring threats.

Rebels point guard Mark Dickel was 0-for-5 from 3-point land and Danny Brotherson was 0-for-4.

Freshman Dalron Johnson did provide help in the middle by cleaning up misses with thunderous dunks and even stepped out to hit a 3-pointer late in the game.

Kambala was effective in the first half, making 5-of-7 field goals to help UNLV to a 40-38 halftime lead.

Oklahoma State's Alex Webber and Brian Montonati double-teamed Kambala early for a few possessions, but the Cowboys completely shut Kambala down in the second half.

Along with rendering Kambala ineffective, the Cowboys employed a 2-3 zone to force UNLV to throw up long jumpers or make cuts inside.

The second option was not easy, because Oklahoma State had four 6-foot-10 big men clogging the middle. For most of the game, three were on the floor at the same time.

"We can't expect to keep throwing the ball inside and let our big people go to work," Dickel said. "We've got to step up and make shots.

"It's just frustrating we lost, but I know why we lost. It was just one of those nights where no one made shots. It could have happened against Austin Peay. It just happened against Oklahoma State."

While UNLV's scorers struggled to make shots, the opposite happened for the Cowboys.

Glendon Alexander came off the bench and made 3-of-6 3-pointers during the Cowboys' 14-0 run after UNLV led by its biggest margin, 42-38 with 19:15 left.

"They were in the ballgame," Alexander said. "It's not that we were better than them. They just couldn't hit shots. Even though UNLV is not ranked, they've got a pretty good ballclub and they're well-coached.

"We know that if we came in here and pulled out the victory, we could gain even more respect from across the country."

That's what the Rebels were hoping to do.

In the first half, it looked like they had a very good shot of winning the game.

The Rebels were able to force the Cowboys to run with them and the teams were tied eight times.

UNLV shot 50 percent from the field to Oklahoma State's 60 percent and the Rebels were still able to lead 40-38 at the half, despite making 1-of-12 3-pointers.

The difference in the second half was the Cowboys' defense.

"We got caught up in their zone and couldn't run it like we wanted to," Johnson said. "We didn't come out with any intensity.

"The coaches told us we had to come out strong. We came out flat and they jumped on us. We found ourselves going into the half like OK, we're up against a big team. Then we came out slow and they jumped on us."

Overall, UNLV played well against a good basketball team so Bayno did not jump on his players.

"We got in and played hard," Bayno said. "I think we have a good team so we've got to get back and practice hard.