LSU Will Face Indiana; Las Vegas, Iowa Advance : WEST REGIONAL : Cowboys Lose; Hawkeyes Win in Overtime

Nevada Las Vegas, the nation’s No. 1-ranked team, were Rebels running scared for a lot longer than they probably expected against Wyoming, but just before midnight, the Hammer fell on this season’s Cinderella.

Armon (Hammer) Gilliam scored 38 points Friday night and UNLV pulled away in the second half to defeat Wyoming, 92-78, in the NCAA West Regional at the Kingdome.

UNLV (36-1) meets Iowa (30-4) Sunday in the West final, with the winner advancing to the Final Four. Iowa defeated Oklahoma, 93-91, in overtime in the first game Friday night.

“Iowa has a good press,” UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian said. “We haven’t been pressed all year, so we have have problems with that. They’re also a great rebounding team and that’s one of our weaknesses.”

Gilliam is one of their strengths. Gilliam assumed the Vegas scoring load when Gerald Paddio, who had five points, and Freddie Banks, who had 14, stayed in their slump.

Wyoming, which had upset Virginia and UCLA in its first two tournament games, got 27 points from Fennis Dembo and 18 points from Eric Leckner.

The upstart Cowboys led, 39-38, at the half behind Dembo’s 14 points while Banks and Paddio were a combined 3 for 16.

However, Leckner, the 6-foot 11-inch center, was forced to play cautiously because of foul trouble, and Vegas finally pulled away. The Rebels led, 63-57, when Jarvis Basnight drove past Leckner for a layup.

Gary Graham’s free throw and a dunk by Gilliam made the score 68-57. Wyoming got no closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

One shot away from losing, Iowa is now only one game away from the Final Four.

The Hawkeyes blew a five-point lead in the last two minutes of overtime but defeated Oklahoma on Kevin Gamble’s three-point shot with three seconds left.

Gamble scored a career-high 26 points against the Sooners, who came back from trailing, 90-85, to take a 91-90 lead with 1:03 to go on Darryl Kennedy’s inside jumper.

The Hawkeyes missed twice on their next possession, but got the rebound both times and with only 11 seconds remaining, decided to work for the last shot.

“We had a plan, I guess you could call it a play,” Iowa Coach Tom Davis said. “We wanted to get the ball to whoever was open.”

Point guard B.J. Armstrong, whose three-pointer sent the game into overtime, drew two defenders to him on the dribble, so Armstrong passed back out to Gamble, standing well beyond the three-point line past the top of the key.

“I saw the clock running down,” Gamble said. “I got my feet under me. I felt pretty good when I released it and lucky enough for us it went down.”

Oklahoma had one second left. Afterward, Coach Billy Tubbs had one very big gripe left. The Sooners threw a length-of-the-court prayer pass that bounced off Harvey Grant’s hands as the buzzer sounded.

But Tubbs thought that guard Tim McCalister had been run over on the inbounds play and a foul should have been called.

“Hell, the guy didn’t have the guts to call it,” Tubbs said.

And what the heck, what’s an important game like this without a little controversy? It had everything else, with the possible exception of Roy Marble, the talented Iowa forward, who seemed lost for most of the game.

Marble finished with 11 points in 43 minutes and shot 4 for 13 from the floor, but at least Marble managed to work the backboards for seven rebounds.

The Hawkeyes had 21 offensive rebounds and a 42-40 overall edge on the backboards, the 34th time in 34 games Iowa has outrebounded its opponent.

But the Hawkeyes didn’t set themselves up for a chance to win until they answered a question in the first half.

What happens if you go one second short of seven minutes without scoring a point?

If you’re Oklahoma, you still lead at halftime, which is what the Sooners did.

With 7:33 to go in the half, Oklahoma had long-balled its way to a 37-21 lead and also had control of the backboards.

With 34 seconds left, Iowa led, 40-37, and had blitzed Oklahoma, 19-0.

“Our missing got contagious,” said Johnson, who didn’t catch the disease. “At that point, it was the turning point.”

Sooner or later, Oklahoma had to score and back-to-back baskets by Kennedy and David Johnson got the Sooners the lead again, 41-40, at halftime.

However, Davis wasn’t terribly worried. “We were having trouble defending them with any kind of defense,” he said. “But we felt we were in pretty good shape at halftime to come back and be in the game.”

McCalister tried his best to shoot the Hawkeyes out of it. The Sooner guard had 7 three-pointers in 11 attempts and finished with 26 points.

The Sooners were hurt when point guard Ricky Grace missed most of the second half with fouls and center Grant was also in foul trouble, but Johnson threw his 265 pounds around inside and he scored 20 points on a stream of soft jumpers.

Gamble’s first three-pointer came in regulation and it gave Iowa a 78-72 lead, but in just over four minutes, Oklahoma had outscored the Hawkeyes, 13-2. Kennedy’s slam dunk off a bounce pass by Grant gave Oklahoma an 85-80 lead with 2:17 to play.

Oklahoma couldn’t hold it. Marble drove the middle, Grant missed inside and Armstrong buried a three-pointer with 51 seconds left to tie the score at 85.

Gamble blocked McCalister’s shot inside and Kennedy missed at the buzzer. So it went into overtime where Iowa Gambled and won.

“You have to give Iowa credit,” Tubbs said. “They hit their shot. We missed ours when we had a chance.”