Tuesday, March 18, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
THEY'LL BE talking today in Hawaii about how their basketball team was shafted in Las Vegas.
"Bush league," the islanders will say.
"Homers," they'll call not only the officials but the timekeeper.
"Fix," they'll add, before asking, "Where's the Fresno Bee when you need it?"
But here in Las Vegas things will be just fine. Whatever the methods and however uneven the calls seemed Monday night, UNLV's basketball season was extended at least another two days when the Rebels finally emerged with an exciting 89-80 overtime victory over the Rainbows at the Thomas & Mack Center.
"That's justice," UNLV followers can proclaim. Hawaii not only won two earlier games with the Rebels this season by a total of three points, but took one under questionable circumstances back on Feb. 6 in Honolulu. The officiating wasn't too good that night either, UNLV supporters will say.
"Besides," the faithful will add, "the home teams are supposed to get the calls, aren't they?"
Well, the Rebels got them in the second-round National Invitation Tournament game, and to celebrate they hopped on a late-night/early-morning flight to that party metropolis, Fayetteville, Ark.
There, UNLV will be an underdog for Wednesday's third-round game with the Razorbacks, with the winner heading to the four-team NIT finals in New York next week.
It was the Rebels and not the Rainbows on that flight to Arkansas for a number of reasons, but the controversial one is this: UNLV took 25 more free throws than Hawaii (and made 13 more). Well, there was another reason: A virtual five-point swing at the end of the first half when a Hawaii three-point shot was waved off on a borderline call, followed by the Rebels getting the ball with four seconds to play and somehow moving it the length of the floor before shooting not once, not twice, but three times. The last one, you may have guessed by now, fell.
Ask anyone from Hawaii and they'll tell you it was an excruciating evening.
The Rainbows were charged with 28 of the game's 41 fouls. With as much as 4:20 to play in regulation, Hawaii had four players on the court with four fouls each. Four 4s usually looks good in Las Vegas, but in this instance the Hawaiians would have preferred a new deal.
So, maybe they got shafted. Usually the calls even out over the course of a hotly contested game, but this time they didn't. This time things went the Rebels' way.
But it wasn't Christmas and the victory didn't quite come giftwrapped. UNLV, seemingly freelancing a bit more on offense, played hard and energetically. There was no shortage of effort and the reward came in overtime when the Rebels outscored the Rainbows by nine.
In Hawaii -- and in Fresno, based on the Bee's questionable "fix" stories earlier this month -- they look suspiciously at games like this. But here in this gambling mecca, where good fortune is truly appreciated, a wink and a "thank you very much" will suffice.
archive
