Pesky Stags no party for Rebels

Message to UNLV men's basketball players: Complacency will not be tolerated.

Neither will laziness.

Those two traits won't help the team win a Mountain West Conference championship, nor will they be accepted by UNLV head coach Bill Bayno.

The Rebels won their second straight, a 92-68 victory over Fairfield at the Thomas & Mack Center before a paid attendance of 10,670 on Sunday night, although it took a halftime lecture to get the team on track.

"I challenge our guys every day," Bayno said. "I'm not worried about the score.

"I'm worried about our effort. We're going to have a tough, tough practice tomorrow and hopefully learn something from tonight."

The Rebels took control of the game with the sharp shooting of Trevor Diggs, who made three of his five 3-pointers in the second half en route to a team-high 19 points, and the unselfish play of Donovan Stewart.

UNLV held a 43-33 halftime lead before Stewart helped spark the team to a 6-0 run and a 14-point lead the Stags (0-2) couldn't overcome.

Stewart fed freshman Dalron Johnson for a dunk to open the half. Then after Fairfield missed a shot, Stewart again connected with Johnson, who made a short jumper.

His final heroics came when he hit a fadeaway jumper. He finished with nine points, six rebounds and two assists.

"This is probably one of my best games I've played in a while," Stewart said. "I felt good warming up and I knew I was going to try to do something.

"I can't wait until we get Reno (Nevada-Reno on Wednesday) and the harder teams as the season goes on."

Fairfield coach Tim O'Toole knew his team wouldn't be able to run with the Rebels for the entire game. So he told his team to slow things down on offense and defense in hopes of forcing the Rebels to commit turnovers.

The Stags ran a box-and-one defense, with a defender playing man-to-man against Rebel point guard Mark Dickel. Fairfield also kept four men in the paint to limit the production of UNLV center Kaspars Kambala.

For a half, it worked.

UNLV committed 10 turnovers, made a dismal 4-of-11 free throws and outrebounded the Stags by only seven for a 43-33 lead.

The seven-rebound advantage would have been OK, but the Stags' tallest player, Oscar Garcia, is listed at 6-foot-8.

Garcia finished with 17 points, while Kambala had nine in limited playing time.

"This team challenged us," Bayno said. "Their kids didn't back down and played us tough.

"I just think there were rebounds we could get to that we didn't get."

Just to be certain that didn't happen as much in the second half, the coaches gave an "inspirational talk" to the players.

"The trouble for us was definitely the rebounds," Stewart said of the first half. "The turnovers also killed us.

"At the half, the coaches came in very upset and cursed us out. They told us that we better go out there more focused."

The talk resulted in the Rebels' attacking the boards, hustling on defense and neutralizing the Stags' defense by going outside to Diggs. UNLV had 49 rebounds to the Stags' 33.

"They clobbered us on the boards," O'Toole said. "They're tough. They worked hard.

"We focused on shutting down Dickel and Kambala and I think we did a good job of that, but then everyone else stepped it up for UNLV."

Guys like Kenny Dye, who made six of 10 shots for 15 points. And despite facing constant pressure, Dickel finished with 11 points and seven assists.

Compared to UNLV's wild 99-73 win over Mississippi Valley State Friday night, the Rebels had a tougher time with the Stags, though the score didn't show it.

"They definitely played hard the whole time," Dye said of Fairfield.

* SCOUTING REPORT: Maury Hanks, regional scout for the New Jersey Nets, was in the stands Sunday night. Hanks said he was keeping his eye on Kambala and Fairfield's Jermaine Clark.

"I've seen Kambala quite a few times," Hanks said. "He runs the floor a lot better than he used to and he's much more active. I think he has a lot of up side."

* FAMILIAR WITH FAIRFIELD: Bayno played two seasons at Sacred Heart University, located in Fairfield, Conn., after transferring from UMass. At Sacred Heart, Bayno earned Division II All-America honors. Bayno and Fairfield coach Tim O'Toole, grew up together and were teammates during the 1982 Empire State Games.

* SLOW START: The Stags, of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, opened their season Friday with a loss at Kansas, and are off to their first 0-2 start since the 1991-92 season. Under former head coach Paul Cormier, the Stags opened with back-to-back losses to Wake Forest and Richmond that year.

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