Surviving scares

Victoria Sun

Wednesday, Dec. 29, 1999 | 10:13 a.m.

There's no better teacher than experience.

Before the UNLV men's basketball team played Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday night, coach Bill Bayno continued to preach the importance of taking every opponent seriously.

The Rebels did -- for the first half.

But in front of an announced crowd of 11,740 at the Thomas & Mack Center, the team put itself on cruise control midway through the second half, surrendering a 22-point lead and almost letting the Colonels walk out with a victory.

Fortunately for Bayno, the players were able to regain their composure and escaped with a 87-80 victory.

The victory lifted UNLV to 8-2 and dropped Eastern Kentucky to 5-3.

"I think it's just a lesson (to be learned) that you can't turn it on and off," Bayno said. "You've got to be ready to play every possession.

"We came out in the second half and thought it was gonna be easy. They had the emotion. They had the energy and we had to fight for our lives down the stretch."

There were some positives.

Kaspars Kambala continued to dominate inside for UNLV, scoring a game-high 27 points and grabbing seven rebounds. The Rebels also shared the ball better than the Colonels by racking up 11 more assists.

Trevor Diggs recorded a school-record eight steals and chipped in 19 points.

Although Diggs still hasn't been able to find a rhythm from beyond the 3-point mark (he was 0-for-6), he was able to make a statement on the charity stripe.

Diggs made 6-of-7 free throws in the final 1:13 and 9-of-11 for the night to seal the victory.

Eastern Kentucky took its only lead of the game, 76-75, when Will Morris made a layup.

On UNLV's next trip down, Kambala was fouled and missed both free throws, but Donovan Stewart was able to tap the ball back to Kambala for a layup to help the Rebels regain the lead.

A steal by Rebel point guard Mark Dickel on the other end led to Diggs scoring off Dickel's missed layup, then making the first of his stretch of seven free throws to make it 80-76.

In the second half, a porous UNLV defense allowed Eastern Kentucky to outscore the Rebels 47-38.

"I think we just let down and let them come back," Kambala said. "It was too easy for a while.

"Then, it's hard when you're giving up so many points to realize what's happening. OK, you're up by 20, then next thing you know, you're up by five then they're up by one."

The Rebels' defense stymied the Colonels and forced them to make 12 turnovers and shoot 34.5 percent from the field.

Kambala scored 18 first-half points in a dazzling performance that got lost in the shuffle of a sloppy and physical game.

Bodies hit the floor diving for loose balls, arms flew everywhere and both teams played what looked like volleyball for a few possessions when trying to keep a handle on the ball.

The bottom line for the Rebels is that they survived.

"We won tough," Kambala said. "Sometimes you have to take those wins. Get that game out of the way and get ready for the next one."

It's a guarantee that the next one will be even harder than this one turned out to be.

On Jan. 2, the Rebels visit No. 3 Cincinnati.

The team will practice today to prepare for the Bearcats and will fly to Cincinnati on Thursday.