Rebels ousted from NIT

Steve Carp

Thursday, March 11, 1999 | 10:22 a.m.

LINCOLN, Neb. -- Just in case you missed UNLV's inglorious exit from last week's WAC tournament, the Rebels provided a replay Wednesday at the Devaney Center.

The team's one-and-done appearance at the National Invitation Tournament in falling 68-55 to Nebraska in front of 6,022 lacked nothing from the team's previous 12 losses.

Missed shots? There were more than enough. Turnovers? Twenty is a nice round number. Three-point field goals? Try 4-for-23. Offensive lulls? How's one field goal in nine minutes sound?

It was vintage UNLV basketball, circa 1999. Start quickly, lose focus, let a team back in, get passed, dig a hole too deep to climb out of, leave the court in frustration.

"We played the worst basketball since I've been here," sophomore guard Greedy Daniels said, and he included himself in his blast. "It seems the harder we tried, the worse we played. It's so frustrating."

Daniels and Mark Dickel combined for 11 of the team's 20 turnovers Wednesday. They had just two assists between them.

That shows you what kind of night it was.

Even Shawn Marion couldn't bail out his teammates. The 6-foot-7 junior ended his season on a struggling note, scoring 18 points but needing 17 shots to get there. He also had eight rebounds but had three of his shots blocked.

Looking for a ray of sunshine on a gloomy night? Look to the middle where Issiah Epps showed up, stuck around and played his most productive game of the year.

The 6-10 junior center scored a season-high 10 points, grabbed five rebounds, blocked two shots, had two steals and committed just one turnover in a career-high 30-minute stint.

"Ike played hard," coach Bill Bayno said. "It was by far his best effort of the season and he definitely gave himself something to build on for next season."

While Epps has something to look forward to for his future, there will be no Garden party for seniors Kevin Simmons and Brian Keefe.

It was a miserable way to end their collegiate careers. Simmons was just 1-of-7 from the floor but had eight rebounds before Bayno pulled him with Nebraska up 20 midway through the second half.

Keefe took just three shots and made the last one, a lean-in bank with 11.7 seconds left. The fact he was in Lincoln and not at the NCAA Tournament left him disappointed. And to finish his career losing five of his last six hurt.

"At least I got to go there last year," he said of the Big Dance. "That was one of my goals. But it's frustrating to go out like this."

After getting off to a 16-8 start and with several chances to extend the lead, UNLV fumbled and bricked away its chance of putting Nebraska in a deep hole.

By halftime, the Rebels were behind 31-29. After being outscored 14-2 the first 4:41 of the second half and trailing 45-31, they were the ones in the hole. And there was no coming back this time.

Bayno said the onus for what happened this season is on him.

"We all take responsibility," he said. "We have a lot of work to do and it starts tomorrow when I go on the road recruiting.

"This game went the way all of our losses have. We started out strong, then we went flat. Turnovers killed us and they packed it in that zone all game and we couldn't make shots."

So the Rebels closed the book on a 16-13 season, wondering what happened.

"I told Kevin and Brian I'm sorry it ended this way," Bayno said. "And I told the rest of the guys this is not going to happen again. This is unacceptable."

Hoop du jour Freshman Desmond Herod had 11 first-half points to be one of three UNLV players in double figures. But Herod never scored again, finishing 3-for-11 from the floor. ... Nebraska, which improved to 20-12, was paced by Cookie Belcher's 17 points and Larry Florence's 16. Venson Hamilton, Nebraska's Mr. Double Double with 17 this season, didn't come close to registering one Wednesday. He had nine points and just five rebounds. He did become the school's career leader in blocked shots with 240. ... Wednesday marked the fifth time in seven games the Rebels shot less than 40 percent from the field. ... Despite five turnovers, Daniels came up with five steals. ... Nebraska faces TCU in the second round of the NIT after the Horned Frogs beat Kansas State 72-71 in Manhattan, Kan.