Cake Eaten, Sooners Dine on UNLV : Rebels: Oklahoma has beaten the dessert of its schedule, and shows Nevada Las Vegas it is still hungry in 89-81 victory.

The cream puff diet ended for Oklahoma on Saturday, and the 12th-ranked Sooners showed they can survive on tougher fare.

Terry Evans made all six of his three-point shots and Oklahoma got strong enough play from its front court to offset the work of Larry Johnson to beat fifth ranked Nevada-Las Vegas, 89-81.

Oklahoma averaged 149 points in its first three games, beating U.S. International, Northeastern Illinois and Angelo State by an average of 78 points.

“You know you’re going to have games like this, and with our team, you have no idea how they’re going to play,” Oklahoma Coach Billy Tubbs said. “I liked the way our team stepped up to play today.”

The victory gave Oklahoma (4-0) its fourth consecutive victory over the Runnin’ Rebels (3-2) dating to the 1986-87 season. It also was the 34th consecutive home victory for the Sooners.

Johnson, the highly touted junior college transfer, had 29 points and 14 rebounds. But no one else scored more than 14 points for the Rebels, who had not played since Nov. 24.

“Without David Butler right now, Larry is our whole offensive and rebounding threat,” said UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian, alluding to his senior center who is sidelined by grades.

“I want to congratulate OU. Everyone Billy put in the game played well.”

Particularly Evans, a second-year freshman who tied a Big Eight record by making the six three-pointers without a miss. He had 11 points in only eight minutes in the first half, then played all 20 minutes of the second half.

“This was my first big challenge,” Evans said. “Nobody gave me a lot of respect, and that goes for the whole team. They said we were playing a bunch of cupcakes. I think we showed we could play.”

The Rebels used a 10-2 run to take a 60-58 lead with 15:31 remaining. Their final lead, 68-67 with 9:56 left, came on a shot inside by Johnson.

But Oklahoma took over with a 12-4 spurt during the next three minutes. Evans’ final three-pointer made it 78-72, and a free throw by Kermit Holmes capped the run. The Rebels got no closer than three after that.

Johnson scored 16 points in the first half. But after giving the Rebels a 32-30 lead with 9:07 left, he went 6 1/2 minutes without scoring, and the Sooners moved ahead, 43-39, on their way to a 47-44 advantage at intermission.

“At halftime I thought we’d get after ‘em,” Tarkanian said. “We started to do that and then broke down.”

The game was stopped three times in the first half as officials warned players from both sides about their style of play.