NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : WEST REGIONAL AT PAULEY PAVILION : UNLV Barely Escapes With 54-50 Victory

Nevada Las Vegas’ basketball team, which had struggled in the late going this season after a 20-1 start, was tested again Friday night but held on to edge Southwest Missouri State, 54-50, in a first-round game of the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. West Regional before a crowd of 11,175 at Pauley Pavilion.

“We played hard,” said UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian, whose team had lost 4 of 11 games coming into the tournament. “I don’t think we played real good, but we played hard.”

Las Vegas (28-5) will play Iowa in a second-round game here Sunday. Southwest Missouri finished with a 22-7 record.

The Rebels, who had traded baskets with Southwest Missouri much of the second half, finally pulled away in the final two minutes after twice tying up Southwest Missouri shots. A basket by Jarvis Basnight gave UNLV a 53-50 lead with 1:47 remaining. Clint Rossum added a free throw for the final margin.

UNLV never led in the first half and trailed, 34-31, at halftime.

But the Rebels came out strong in the second half, closing within 34-33 on a basket by Basnight and going ahead on a three-pointer by Gerald Paddio.

Southwest Missouri tied the score, 36-36, but then UNLV took a five-point lead on another three-pointer by Paddio and Basnight’s basket off an offensive rebound.

Southwest Missouri came back, taking a 42-41 lead on a basket by Kelby Stuckey with about 13 minutes left.

They traded baskets after that, until UNLV took a 49-46 lead with 3:41 remaining on a steal and dunk by Basnight.

Less than a minute later, the lead was back to one after Caleb Davis made two free throws, and then the Bears took a 50-49 lead on two free throws by Stuckey.

Southwest Missouri became only the second team all season to hold UNLV in the 50s. The other was Temple, which lost, 59-58, to the Rebels.

“I would have thought that if the score was in the 50s, we would have won,” Southwest Missouri Coach Charlie Spoonhour said.

Southwest Missouri began to make a name for itself last season in the Bears’ first NCAA tournament appearance. They knocked off Clemson in the first round before losing to Kansas, 67-63, in the second.

UNLV and Southwest Missouri came into the game here having followed much different paths during the season.

In its first 21 games, UNLV lost only to UC Santa Barbara. But in their last 11 games, the Rebels lost to Santa Barbara again, Missouri, Cal State Long Beach and UC Irvine, the last defeat coming in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. tournament.

Southwest Missouri, coming off a 28-6 season--the most successful in school history--had just a 7-4 mark at the end of December. But the Bears won 15 of their last 17, finishing the season with a 22-6 record and winning the championship of the Assn. of Mid-Continent Universities, which does not hold a postseason tournament.

Southwest Missouri jumped out to an 8-0 lead at the outset of Friday night’s game before UNLV scored its first basket. The game was more than three minutes old when UNLV’s Stacey Augmon scored off an offensive rebound to make it 8-2, and Southwest Missouri led, 10-2, shortly after.

Clay Holt, one of three Bear players averaging more than 15 points a game, hit a three-pointer with 14 minutes to play in the first half that gave Southwest Missouri its biggest lead, 15-6.

UNLV began to come back, largely behind Basnight, who scored six straight points and helped cut the deficit to 17-13.

The Rebels trimmed it to 29-28 when Basnight hit a half-hook with 2:40 left in the half. Fouled on the next play, Basnight made the second of two free throws, tying the score at 29-29.

But Southwest Missouri made 5 of 9 free throws in the final two minutes of the half to regain the lead.

Southwest Missouri shot 59% (10 of 17) in the first half, but that was not an astonishingly high percentage for this team. In 28 games this season, the Bears have shot 50% or better 19 times. That percentage fell to just 29% in the second half, though, which told the tale.

Both teams struggled offensively in the second half, going long stretches without scoring.

“Our problem against them was very simply this,” Spoonhour said. “They played excellent defense. They made it hard for people to shoot.”

Basnight led UNLV with 17 points. Stuckey scored 18 for the Bears.

Tarkanian expects another challenge from Iowa, a team the Rebels eliminated en route to the Final Four last year.

“Basically this is the same Iowa team, and basically this is a whole new UNLV team,” Tarkanian said. “I hope they don’t take it out on these guys.”