NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : WEST REGIONAL AT PAULEY PAVILION : Hawkeyes Return the Favor, Sending UNLV to Sidelines

Jeff Moe and Ed Horton scored 24 points each Sunday as 17th-ranked Iowa rode its fullcourt press to a 104-86 victory over 12th-ranked Nevada Las Vegas in a second-round NCAA West Regional game.

Roy Marble added 22 points for the Hawkeyes, who broke open the game in the last 10 minutes of the first half in earning a berth in the round of 16 and knocking out the last of the 1987 Final Four teams.

The Hawkeyes led all the way in scoring 100 or more points for the 14th time this season and raising their record to 24-9.

The game was a rematch of last spring’s West Region championship game. In that contest, UNLV won, 97-93, after trailing by 18 points at halftime to earn a berth in the Final Four.

Iowa wasn’t about to blow its big lead this time.

Iowa needed less than three minutes to take a 10-0 lead and was on top, 29-17, midway through the first half. The Rebels then went on an 11-1 spurt to make it 30-28, but that was the last time UNLV got close.

Iowa scored 11 of the game’s next 14 points to make it 41-31, and after two free throws by UNLV’s Clint Rossom, the Hawkeyes got another eight in a row to make it 49-33.

It was 51-39 at halftime and the Rebels weren’t able to get closer than 11 points in the second half.

The Hawkeyes scored 14 straight points to take their biggest lead at 71-45 with 13:20 remaining. UNLV went 5:25 without scoring before Gerald Paddio hit a three-point shot.

The Rebels battled back after that, but couldn’t get closer than 14 points.

Paddio, a 6-foot-7 senior forward who made eight three-point shots, led the Rebels with a career-high 34 points. Karl James added 21 points for UNLV. Jarvis Basnight, Las Vegas’ second-leading scorer with a 14.4-point average, was held to two points and fouled out with 13:39 remaining.

The 24 points were a career-high for Horton.

The loss by the Rebels means that all of last year’s Final Four are on the sidelines--defending NCAA champion Indiana was upset by Richmond in a first-round game; Syracuse was eliminated by Rhode Island in a second-round game Saturday, and Providence didn’t even make the tournament.

The Rebels, regular-season champions of the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. and seeded fourth in the West, finished their season with a 28-6 record.

UNLV played without reserve guard Keith James, who has infectious mononucleosis. James had a 9.1-point scoring average this season.