Santa Barbara deals UNLV a painful defeat

Paul Arnett

Monday, Feb. 26, 1990 | 2 a.m.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif.----When perhaps it counted the most, the second-ranked UNLV Rebels had nothing to give.

Sparked by an overflow crowd of 6,7387 in the dreaded Thunderdome, seniors Carrick DeHart and Eric McArthur bid their fans farewell by leading the UC Santa Barbara to a 78-70 victory Monday night in a crucial Big West Conference game.

The loss not only hurt the Rebels’ chances of securing the top sport in the country, it dropped them into first-place tie with New Mexico State. If the Rebels finish in a tie, through the tiebreaker system, the Aggies will receive the top seed in the league tournament because of their 2-0 record against these same Gauchos.

The loss snapped a 10-game winning streak for the Rebels, and left them with an overall mark of 24-5 and conference record of 14-2. The victory raises Santa Barbara to 19-7 and 12-5 in conference. It also all but guarantees coach Jerry Pimms team a spot on the NCAA tournament.

“This was a great way for the seniors to go out,” Pimm said of DeHart and McArthur, “I thought we were superb defensively, sound on rebounding and patient on offense. You have to be patient against their type of defense.

“In defense of Vegas, they were a little tired on defense. I was counting on them being tired. They’ve played 12 games already this month, and that can take it out of the best teams. This was a great win for us. A great win.”

DeHart finished with a game high 24 points to hold off repeated charges by the Rebels in the second half. Try as they might, the Rebels could never get any closer than four. Larry Johnson and David Butler, both plagued with foul trouble throughout the game, could do nothing down low against McArthur.

There was no room in the paint, due to the woeful outside shooting of Anderson Hunt, who seems to have gone into another one of his shooting slumps over the past two games. The sophomore hit only 3 of 16 from the field, including 2 of 13 three-point attempts.

“We’ll get them in Long Beach,” Hunt said as he headed into the dressing room. He was the only UNLV player available for comment, after a bitter Stacey Augmon said, “You can’t come in here. We are not talking to reporters.”

The Gauchos did most of the talking on the court as well. They shot 51 percent from the field while holding UNLV to only 40 percent. McArthur did little to hurt his chances of remaining tops in the nation in rebounding. The 6’7” forward had an astonishing 20 for the game, as Santa Barbara outrebounded the Rebels 47-31. McArthur also had 15 points.

“They thoroughly outplayed us for the entire game,” UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian said. “We came out playing hard defensively, then we just stopped. Larry being in early foul trouble hurt us. He never got into any kind of flow.”

Johnson captured TV commentator Dick Vitale’s Windex award for great play last week. The junior was held to a season low in points (10) and rebounds with only five. He played just 27 minutes and fouled out with a little more than two minutes left.

Point guard Greg Anthony, forced to pick up the shooting duties Hunt wasn’t able to handle, led all ULV players with 18. He had six assists, but also six turnovers and had all kinds of problems trying to guard DeHart.

Augmon and Hunt rounded out UNLV’s offensive attack with 13 and 11 points, respectively. Santa Barbara’s Paul Johnson added 12 for the Gauchos. They had only three players finish in double figures.

It wasn’t a very pretty game. In the first half, both teams turned the ball over time after time. The lead changed hands several times early, before the Gauchos took the lead for good at 23-21 with 8:16 left.

“We were really heavy footed,” Tarkanian said. “We didn’t do much on defense, and even less on offense. I don’t want to use being tired as an excuse, because that takes away from what Santa Barbara did to us. They dominated us in every phase of the game.”

UNLV will take two days off before playing Utah State Thursday in Logan. The Rebels then finish the regular season on the road at Cal State Fullerton.