Tulsa Blows Away Rebels
Tulsa is becoming an old hand at winning first-round games in the NCAA tournament.
With David Shelton scoring 21 points, Tulsa routed UNLV 89-62 on Friday in the NCAA South Regional. This was the fifth time in six years the Golden Hurricane have won in the opening round.
Now the work gets considerably harder. Seventh-seeded Tulsa (30-4) goes into the second round Sunday against No. 2 seed Cincinnati, a 64-47 winner over North Carolina-Wilmington.
"We've set the table for something special," Tulsa coach Bill Self said. "Sunday's game will determine whether we had an unbelievable season or a pretty good season.
"We knew we were going to have a pretty good season, but this is the time when seasons are judged."
Tenth-seeded UNLV (23-8) lost to both Cincinnati and Tulsa this season, and coach Bill Bayno thinks Tulsa might have a chance with Bearcats star Kenyon Martin sidelined by a broken leg.
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Friday's game certainly wasn't despite featuring two of the nation's top scoring teams. Only Tulsa showed what it could do.
The Golden Hurricane hit their first six shots, while UNLV had only six field goals in the entire first half. The Runnin' Rebels couldn't get going with Tulsa harassing them with 11 steals and shadowing UNLV guard Mark Dickel, the nation's assist leader.
UNLV managed to get within 10 twice, the last on a drive by Danny Brotherson with 8:51 left in the first half, making it 24-1. But the Runnin' Rebels hit only one more shot the rest of the half, and Tulsa broke the game open by finishing the half with a 15-2 run, highlighted by three straight 3s including two by Dante Swanson for a 44-22 lead.
"That's probably as good a 30 minutes as we've played all year," Self said. "I thought we came out and got off to a great start."
Tony Heard and Greg Harrington added 16 points each for Tulsa, and Marcus Hill added 14.
Shelton said putting up points was easy with teammates worried more about finding the right shot instead of shooting themselves.
"We was getting the ball in places to guys where we knew they could score. I don't think one time in the first half that we got the ball to a guy who wasn't in his scoring area," he said. "We got teammates involved early, and that was the key to getting everybody off to a good start."
UNLV center Kaspars Kambala said it seemed like everyone scored for Tulsa at one time or another. The Runnin' Rebels couldn't keep up, missing short jumpers and easy layups.
"We got down on ourselves. They caught the momentum and went with it," Kambala said.
The Golden Hurricane ran up the score in the second half, getting it up to 73-40.
Kambala, the Runnin' Rebels' leading scorer, hit just one shot in the first half with the rest of his 21 points coming in the second half. Brotherson added 15, and Trevor Diggs 14.
The poor performance left Bayno defending UNLV's at-large bid into the tournament, which has been criticized heavily since the teams were announced.
"We were I think a little bit caught up in the moment. But again, I think we took care of business. I do feel bad for the committee because we're a much better team than we played that first half," Bayno said.
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