UNLV crushes BYU to claim MWC tournament championship

With a rousing victory that uncorked the pent-up hopes and dreams of UNLV's basketball program, the Rebels can officially call themselves champions of the Mountain West Conference.

Whether they can call themselves an NCAA Tournament qualifier remains in somebody else's hands.

The host Rebels captured the conference tournament in the most emphatic way imaginable Saturday night, bolting to a 26-2 lead on weary Brigham Young in the first eight minutes and capturing a 79-56 victory before a screaming house of 14,237 at the Thomas & Mack Center.

UNLV completed a three-game tournament sweep of San Diego State, Wyoming and BYU to improve its record to 23-7 and make a convincing case for an at-large invitation to the NCAA Tournament.

Though the Rebels' win wasn't in doubt after their fast start, the postgame celebration had the spontaneous feeling of a last-second win. A good portion of the crowd streamed on to the court, enveloping the players in a massive group hug, and then the players took a victory march on the press tables.

It's uncertain if the party will continue Sunday, however. The Mountain West winner does not get an automatic bid in the 64-team field, so the Rebels must hope the NCAA committee bestows a bid upon them on the tournament selection show on CBS at 3:30 p.m. PST. The team will gather at the Thomas & Mack to watch the show.

"We deserve to be in," said Rebels coach Bill Bayno, whose squad won its last seven games and nine of its last 11. "We are playing our best ball of the season. We made a statement tonight. This team did what it had to do. It put together its best performance of the season."

"We won the tournament and the (regular-season co-championship), so hopefully this will get us in," shooting guard Trevor Diggs said.

"I don't see how (the NCAA) can keep us out," said point guard Mark Dickel, who was named the tournament MVP only five days after being left off the all-conference first team. "We had some bad losses along the way, but you have to take into consideration our last (seven) games."

Joining Dickel on the all-tournament fivesome were teammates Kaspars Kambala and Dalron Johnson, BYU's Terrell Lyday and Wyoming's LeDarion Jones. A case also could've been made for Diggs, who led Saturday's rout with 20 points and averaged 17.3 in the three games.

All five UNLV starters scored in double figures and each received a curtain call, Dickel coming out last to a heartfelt ovation with 1:05 to play. Chants of "MVP! MVP!" filled the arena, as fans made known their appreciation for Dickel's decidely underappreciated career.

Dickel's final home game (presumably) produced 10 points and seven assists. He dealt 18 assists Friday for a UNLV record and the most this season in the NCAA.

"I was upset about (not being all-conference first team), but this was a sort of revenge," he said. "To go out as a champion is unbelievable."

The Rebels made such a blowout of Saturday's game, the second half was an anticlimax. They took leads of 26-2, 28-3, 35-9 and 43-14 in the first half, hassling BYU into mistake after mistake, miss after miss, turnover after turnover. For all of the effort the Cougars put out, they could have phoned the game in from the hotel.

"Las Vegas came out with great energy and took it to us," BYU coach Steve Cleveland said. "I don't know, maybe we played our championship game last night (in beating Utah). We just did not have anything left. We didn't have the energy to match them."

But that doesn't pay enough credit to the Rebels, who picked up where they left off in Friday's thrilling 97-92 win over Wyoming. Though they had lost both regular-season games to BYU (with a combined margin of three points), the Rebels left no doubt this time.

In an incredible run of efficiency, UNLV ran away from a 2-2 tie with 24 straight points over a span of 7:12. Playing assertively under the basket, Kambala scored nine of his 15 points in the opening flurry. Dickel had a three-point play and banked in a 3-point basket to fuel the spurt.

Ahead 43-16 at halftime, the Rebels didn't let down in the second half. They went on a 15-4 run for a 58-20 lead, with Danny Brotherson scoring six of his 14. That was UNLV's biggest lead.

"I was still nervous at halftime. You hate playing with a lead like that," Bayno said. "Nine out of 10 teams would come out and get sloppy, but we didn't. I told our guys to play like it's an even game."

BYU got 19 points from Mekeli Wesley and 18 from Lyday, but all of Lyday's came after halftime.

archive