Tulsa 89, UNLV 62

Friday, March 17, 2000 | 2:19 a.m.

David Shelton scored 21 points as Tulsa routed UNLV 89-62 on Friday in the NCAA South Regional, the Golden Hurricane's fifth first-round victory in six years.

Seventh-seeded Tulsa (30-4) will play No. 2 seed Cincinnati, a 64-47 winner over UNC-Wilmington, in the second round Sunday.

Tenth-seeded UNLV (23-8) came in confident, having beaten Tulsa twice last season when both were members of the WAC.

The Runnin' Rebels won the first tournament of the Mountain West, made up mostly of former WAC members, while Tulsa was the WAC's regular-season champ.

The game featured two of the nation's top scoring teams, but only Tulsa showed up.

The Golden Hurricane hit their first six shots, while UNLV had only six field goals in the entire first half. The Runnin' Rebels couldn't get going with Tulsa harassing them with 11 steals.

Tony Heard and Greg Harrington led Tulsa with 16 points each, and Marcus Hill added 14.

UNLV managed to get within 10 twice, the last on a drive by Danny Brotherson with 8:51 left in the first half, making it 24-14. But the Runnin' Rebels hit only one more shot the rest of the half.

Tulsa broke the game open by finishing the half with a 15-2 run, highlighted by three straight 3s - including two by Dante Swanson - for a 44-22 lead.

The Golden Hurricane ran up the score in the second half, getting it up to 73-40.

Kaspars Kambala, the Runnin' Rebels' leading scorer, hit just one shot in the first half with the rest of his 21 points coming in the second half. Danny Brotherson added 15, and Trevor Diggs 14.