UNLV keeps slim conference title hopes alive

Steve Addy

Saturday, Feb. 26, 2000 | 11:02 a.m.

No matter what, the Rebels will not make the NCAA Tournament based on artistic merit. That much was established long ago.

But UNLV's ugly 84-61 victory over Air Force on Saturday night accomplished exactly what it was supposed to.

The win not only kept the Rebels in the hunt for an unlikely NCAA bid, it maintained their slim chances of nudging Utah for the Mountain West regular-season championship. As odd as that might have seemed coming off their back-to-back MWC losses at BYU and Utah, it remains a possibility.

This is why. Utah suffered a 60-49 loss at Colorado State on Saturday, dropping the Utes to 9-3 in the Mountain West. Meanwhile, UNLV and New Mexico improved to 8-4 with wins. If Utah tumbles Monday in the altitude at Wyoming, it gives the Rebels a chance to tie the Utes by winning out. UNLV would win the tiebreaker with a 2-0 record against New Mexico (Utah split with the Lobos).

It would also give the Rebels (18-7) the No. 1 seed for the Mountain West tournament March 9-11 at the Thomas & Mack Center, giving them the easiest possible road to an NCAA berth.

"We don't live and die by what other teams do, but Utah opened the door a little bit," Rebels coach Bill Bayno said. "I told our guys at halftime that we are playing for a championship, no matter what happened up at Utah and BYU. That's got to be our focus."

There was nothing especially artful about Saturday's win over Air Force (8-17, 4-8) in front of an announced 11,847 at the Mack. The Rebels didn't play well, but the Falcons were truly awful. They gift-wrapped the game for UNLV with 15 first-half turnovers, often against token defensive pressure. At one point, Air Force had 13 turnovers and only 12 points.

When Air Force wasn't dribbling itself into the ditch, it wasted possessions with 8-of-29 field goal shooting in the first half. The Falcons finished only 22-of-65 (33.8 percent).

"Our execution was out of sync," Air Force coach Reggie Minton said. "The two worst games we played all season were against UNLV."

Despite shooting only 11-of-31 and committing nine turnovers themselves, the Rebels had a 35-22 halftime lead and quickly put the game out of reach. An 11-0 run in the second half pushed them ahead 47-24, and their lead climbed reached 77-49 with 3:58 to play.

Trevor Diggs led UNLV with 19 points on 8-of-14 field goals. The Rebels nearly had four players with double-doubles, but Chris Richardson was a rebound short. Kaspars Kambala and Danny Brotherson tallied 13 points and 11 boards, Mark Dickel added 12 points and 11 assists and Richardson chipped in with 11 points.

For Air Force, Jarvis Croff scored 17 and freshman Tom Bellairs had 10 with 11 rebounds.