UNLV looking to put 40-point beating behind them tonight against High Point

Victoria Sun

Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2000 | 10:10 a.m.

Some games you wish would never end.

Some games you wish never happened.

The latter is true for the UNLV men's basketball team and its 106-66 loss to Cincinnati on Sunday afternoon.

"Who wouldn't want to take that one back?" Rebel center Kaspars Kambala said on Monday after practice. "It's pretty embarrassing to lose by 40.

"We were supposed to put it behind us yesterday, but there were still some things being said. It will be interesting to see what we've got left for tomorrow."

The "tomorrow" Kambala was talking about is the 8-3 Rebels' game against High Point (6-5) of North Carolina tonight at 7:35 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

Against No. 3 Cincinnati, UNLV was overmatched and picked a bad time to play its worst game of the season.

The Rebels shot 34.8 percent for the night, committed 24 turnovers and were outrebounded 51-33.

Kambala, the team's leading scorer, entered the game prepared to do battle with Cincinnati's imposing frontcourt, but ended up battling his own frustrations.

He quickly picked up three fouls in the first half, rendering him ineffective for most of the game. Kambala entered the game averaging 20.6 points and 9.4 rebounds and finished with 10 points and three rebounds.

"It definitely wasn't the best day," Kambala said. "It was frustrating.

"The few fouls in the first half, it's hard against a physical team like that. With four fouls (Kambala picked up his fourth in the second half) you can't play as physical as you want to.

"Then early, they triple-teamed me because someone told me they wanted to stop me from getting the ball and they did a good job of that. Sometimes, it's also frustrating when guys stop going to you."

After the game, UNLV head coach Bill Bayno singled out Kambala's performance and said the lack of post presence against the physical Bearcats ended up hurting the team.

Kambala shouldered the criticism with amusement.

"I'm 6-foot-9, 255 pounds so that should answer the question of whether I was intimidated or not," Kambala said. "If I'm to blame for a 40-point loss then I guess I'm gonna have to start taking that as a compliment."

The good news for the team is help should be on the way.

Sometime today, junior college transfer Lou Kelly is expected to have his associate in arts degree from Los Angeles City College verified. Once the school confers his degree, he will be eligible to join the team.

After Kelly gets a few practices under his belt, he should be a big help offensively.

Kenny Dye, who injured his right shoulder on Dec. 3 against Princeton, continued his rehabilitation work with trainer Dave Tomchek on Monday. There is no definitive date for Dye's return, but he is making progress.