Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2001 | 11 a.m.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Forget all of the Rebels' high-minded talk about finishing the season with pride and togetherness.
Those proclamations were exposed as empty words Monday night.
In a collapse that was shockingly complete and highly embarrassing, the Rebels gift-wrapped 20 straight points for New Mexico in the final nine minutes and suffered a 75-56 loss to the Lobos before 17,184 at The Pit.
UNLV had illusions of sweeping its final four games and winning the Mountain West regular-season title, in lieu of playing in the MWC tournament. But those grand intentions were dashed by 20 awful minutes.
The Rebels scored only 16 points in the second half, went scoreless for eight minutes while the Lobos made it a laugher, and made only three baskets in the final 16-plus minutes. In that span, UNLV shot 3-of-18 (0-of-9 on 3-pointers) and committed 10 turnovers, many of them unforced.
After Dalron Johnson's short leaner got the Rebels within 55-54 with 8:54 to play, they didn't score until Jermaine Lewis' layup with 54 seconds left. Meanwhile, they permitted the Lobos to shoot 8-of-11 during a 20-0 run.
The Rebels had no one to blame but themselves. Most of their misses could have counted as turnovers, because they bombed away indiscriminately from the perimeter. They barely even tried to look inside to Kaspars Kambala before jacking up some sort of fool's gold from 20 feet.
In the first half, Kambala compiled 15 points on 5-of-8 field goals and 5-of-5 free throws, but then the Rebels forgot about him. He got only three shots in 19 second-half minutes, going long stretches without getting an entry pass or even touching the ball. He finished with 20 points.
"We didn't establish Kas in the post in the second half," coach Max Good said. "During every timeout, we said we have to start getting Kas the ball. He has to touch it every time. But we got impatient and shot too quickly.
"It wasn't out of selfishness. But we had too many people too anxious to do it all themselves. That's surprising, because we haven't been playing that way."
Especially not in the first half, when the Rebels ran a patient offense through Kambala. He was thriving against single coverage and soft double-teams. When he didn't have an alley to the rim, he passed the ball outside. UNLV made 5-of-12 3-pointers en route to a 40-26 lead with 1:49 left in the half.
But from then on, New Mexico outscored UNLV 49-16.
Kambala, who routinely dominates the Lobos' smallish front line, was baffled by the failure to get him the ball in the second half, whether due to unwillingness or carelessness. Of the Rebels' 23 second-half shots, 12 were 3-pointers and they made only one.
"I felt like I was scoring easy in the first half," the senior center said. "Then we started taking a bunch of 3s and we didn't make any of them. We just came down and kept shooting.
"I knew I could pretty much score at will. But it felt like I didn't (touch the ball) five or six possessions in a row, even though (Good) was saying to get me the ball."
Once the Rebels' bricks started flying, their lead withered and they laid this one on a silver platter for the Lobos. Seemingly every UNLV clanker resulted in a transition opportunity for New Mexico, and the Rebels let the Lobos guards parade up the lane for layup after layup.
UNLV compounded its collapse by missing all six free throws in the final 9:20, and Trevor Diggs committed an intentional foul on Marlon Parmer with 6:07 to play, fueling the Lobos' momentum.
Parmer scored 16 to lead all five New Mexico starters in double figures. Eric Chatfield scored 10 of his 15 in the second half, including seven in the 20-point run.
Diggs scored 13 points but had a rough night, making only 2-of-9 3-pointers and committing five turnovers. Dalron Johnson scored 11, but also turned it over five times.
UNLV's second-half pratfall was all the more surprising in light of its recent performances. The Rebels (15-11, 6-5 MWC) had won four straight league games. In Saturday's 86-78 victory at Air Force, they showed teamwork and judicious shooting, taking a season-low 42 shots but making a season-high 64 percent.
Monday, the Rebels fell in love with 3-pointers.
How bad did it get for the Rebels? Dunk specialist Chris Richardson took only two shots all night and both were 3-pointers that missed.
"When you get behind, you want to catch up really fast, and what better way than 3-pointers?" Richardson said. "If you live by the 3, you die by the 3."
But on this night, it was stubborn and unnecessary.
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