UNLV devours Wyoming

Steve Addy

Saturday, Feb. 12, 2000 | 11:05 a.m.

This time, the blowout belonged to UNLV, and the Rebels stayed in position to turn the Mountain West Conference upside-down this week.

By pounding Wyoming 87-60 on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center, UNLV avenged a blowout loss last week at Laramie and maintained its firm grip on second place in the MWC at 7-2 (16-5 overall).

Now the Rebels head out on the road for a two-game trip that should decide who wins the regular season conference title. They'll visit Brigham Young next Saturday, hoping to make up for their only other MWC loss, then play at first-place Utah (8-1) in a Big Monday clash Feb. 21.

The Rebels' win over Wyoming (3-5, 13-10) came 12 days after they suffered a deceivingly meager 109-98 loss at Laramie. The Cowboys were winning by 33 points early in the second half and UNLV only made the final score respectable in garbage time.

This time, before 12,851, the Rebels ran Wyoming out of the building with a complete first-half performance, grabbing a 49-23 halftime edge, and expanded the margin as high as 32 early in the second half. UNLV's passing was terrific, accounting for 30 assists on 35 baskets.

"It hurt to get beat like that at Wyoming and our guys wanted to make up for it," coach Bill Bayno said. "It felt good to be up 26 at halftime."

"We definitely had hard feelings over what happened (at Laramie)," said Rebels center Kaspars Kambala, who led them with 29 points on 12-of-18 field goals and added 11 rebounds. "They were running around, throwing towels in the air and celebrating like they'd really done something."

In the rematch, UNLV limited the Cowboys to 25-percent shooting and outrebounded them 59-41. The Rebels had a 36-14 rebound edge in the first half.

A 23-6 run in an eight-minute span pushed the Rebels ahead 44-18 with 2:48 left in the half and the Cowboys never got closer than 21 after that (75-54). Seven Rebels scored in UNLV's big run, led by Trevor Diggs with five and Dalron Johnson and Donovan Stewart with four each.

The Rebels played the last 6:59 of the half without Kambala, who had two fouls, but it didn't slow them down. They outscored Wyoming 18-9 without him.

Diggs finished with 21 points, his most since he scored 28 at Air Force on Jan. 15. Johnson had 13 rebounds, 10 in the first half, and Mark Dickel dealt 13 assists.