Rebels hammer Chicago State for sixth straight win

Steve Addy

Sunday, Jan. 7, 2001 | 1:07 a.m.

Regardless of the turmoil that has beset them this season, the Rebels will enter their Mountain West schedule with a six-game winning streak.

Not bad for a team with one tangible goal to play for.

By routing Chicago State 106-71 on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center, UNLV improved to 9-5 heading into Monday's conference opener against Air Force at the Mack.

Of course, the MWC regular season is all that's left for the Rebels this season. They're banned from postseason play, barring a successful appeal of the NCAA ban, so their only remaining goal is to win the conference title. They can't play in the MWC tournament.

Unlike many games in their winning streak, the Rebels didn't need to rally from a slow start on Saturday night. They scored 15 straight points to take an 18-6 lead after seven minutes and led comfortably the rest of the way.

An 11-2 run late in the half pushed the Rebels' lead to 20, and a 7-0 spurt to start the second half made it 57-32. UNLV kept pulling away, leading by as much as 93-56 with 5:55 to play.

It was the Rebels' highest point total in eight years, since a 110-95 victory at Nevada-Reno on Jan. 28, 1993. It was the second time they've topped 100 this season, the other being a 101-71 win over Division II Alaska-Anchorage on Dec. 18.

They Rebels reached 100 points on Sylvester Dotson's put-back dunk with 1:42 left, then Chris Popoola added two straight 3-pointers.

After a sore back sidelined Kaspars Kambala for Wednesday's win over Loyola Marymount, he had a solid game from the start against Chicago State, compiling 24 points and 15 rebounds in only 27 minutes. The Cougars (3-10) simply couldn't match up with the Rebels' burly center, who didn't appear bothered by his back.

Kambala shot 11-of-15 to spark a hot shooting night by the Rebels. They were over 50 percent for most of the night and finished at a season-high 55.4 on 41-of-74.

Lou Kelly continued his hot scoring off the bench, adding 13 points on 5-of-7, while Chris Richardson had 12.

Rebels point guard Jevon Banks saw his first action since suffering a severe right ankle sprain on Dec. 2 against Oklahoma State, so Saturday's game marked the first time all season that UNLV had its whole roster available.

Every Rebel scored except Omari Pearson and walk-on Noel Bloom, who got his first playing time for UNLV.

Tony Jones led Chicago State with 14 points.