Diggs helps UNLV bury Air Force

COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO.-The UNLV men's basketball team needed a win on the road against Air Force on Saturday night.

And the players delivered with what head coach Bill Bayno characterized as the best performance "in terms of not having a let down late in the game."

Trevor Diggs led the Rebels with a career-high 28 points to help UNLV crush the Falcons, 98-73 before 1,237 in Clune Arena.

The victory improved UNLV to 10-4, 1-1 in the Mountain West and dropped Air Force to 4-9, 0-1.

Entering the game, Diggs had made only 29 percent of his 3-pointers, but he broke out of his slump against the Falcons by making 5-of-8.

"I have more confidence because my teammates and my coaches have told me to keep shooting and not to worry about it," Diggs said. "Before, if I missed one shot, I'd be down the whole game, but now I'm having more fun playing."

Diggs wasn't the only one who had a career night.

Freshman Dalron Johnson put together his second consecutive complete game and finished with 22 points 14 rebounds, both career highs.

Although it was a great night for Diggs, he was happier with the way the Rebels played as a team.

"Our team played a lot more unselfishly tonight," Diggs said. "It was important for us to come in here and win on the road because I kept hearing how hard it was going to be to play here.

"It's like a statement game for us. I think it will open up a couple eyes in the conference because people will see that we played together and got it done. Some teams are going to come in here and lose.

"Tonight was our best game. Sometimes Kas (Kaspars Kambala) was off or Mark (Dickel) was off. But tonight, Pork (Johnson), Mark, the whole team was playing good."

Kambala chipped in 17 points and 10 rebounds.

The Rebels played solid defensively the entire game and out-rebounded the Falcons 48-32.

More impressive was the team made only eight turnovers while forcing Air Force to commit 13.

UNLV dominated from the start and shot 54.1 percent from the field and out-rebounded the Falcons 22-13 in the first half.

The Rebels led by 21 points until Lawrence Yazzie's desperation 3-pointer before the buzzer sounded to end the first half. The shot capped Air Force's 13-3 run to help pull the Falcons 49-38.

Tyron Wright led Air Force with 17 points and Yazzie finished with 14.

"They shot really well the first half," Air Force coach Reggie Minton said. "And this is a team that probably hasn't shot this well in a while from what I was told.

"They play hard, they made shots, they're big and athletic and that's a bad combination for us. That's going to be a bad combination for any team as the conference continues.

"We had a window of opportunity at the beginning of the second, but I think we were a little impatient offensively because we shot it too quickly."

UNLV junior college transfer student Lou Kelly made his long-awaited debut for the Rebels.

He made 1-of-9 shots for four points, grabbed three rebounds, and had one steal and one assist in 18 minutes.

As expected, Kelly rushed a few shots and looked eager to contribute, but was able to help out defensively.

"A little bit," Kelly said when asked if he was trying to do too much. "I've been off since February. It felt weird to be out there.

"I'm just going to take it one game at a time."

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