NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : WEST REGIONAL NOTEBOOK : Rebels Accompany Coach to Denver

Jerry Tarkanian locked the locker-room door and told his basketball players three things before Sunday’s NCAA West Regional title game against Loyola Marymount.

“Number 1: I’m going to the Final Four,” the Nevada Las Vegas coach began, definitely getting their attention.

Tarkanian waited a beat and added: “You can either go with me or you can watch it on TV, it’s up to you.”

That was for inspiration. The next point was an instruction.

“Number 2: No talkin’ trash,” Tarkanian said.

Several Loyola players had pointed out that in their last game with UNLV, the Runnin’ Rebels had run off their mouths.

Loyola’s Chris Knight, elaborating, had said: “Other teams, like a Michigan, will yell: ‘Where’s your jump shot?’ But Vegas is like: ‘Where’s your mother? I think she’s in my room.’ They’re such good players--why do it?”

Sunday, the UNLV players played like gentlemen.

The third tip from their coach was sound advice.

“Play hard, all day long,” Tarkanian told them. “No matter what the score is, keep coming hard. These Loyola guys don’t quit.”

Ahead early, 16-4, UNLV suddenly found itself in a tight contest, 41-37, after Bo Kimble’s first left-handed free throw and a right-handed one that followed. Taking their coach’s advice, the Rebels kept playing hard, and won, 131-101, never trailing from start to finish.

Tarkanian had said the day before the game that Loyola was the only team he would concede was better conditioned than the Rebels.

After Sunday, he retracted.

“I changed my mind. I think we’re in better shape than they are.”

Forward Stacey Augmon led UNLV with 33 points, but guard Anderson Hunt was the runningest Rebel, scoring 30 points while steering the fast break and handing out 13 assists. He also had six steals and only two turnovers in 34 minutes.

“(Loyola) said we’d need oxygen,” Hunt said. “They said we couldn’t run with them. But it was the type of game we dream about.”

This is UNLV’s third trip to the Final Four. In 1977, the Rebels lost to North Carolina in a semifinal game. In 1987, they lost in the semifinals to Indiana, the eventual NCAA champion.

“I think we legitimately have a better chance of winning than in 1977 and 1987,” Tarkanian said. “I think there isn’t anyone we can’t beat if we play well.”

With one hour of practice to prepare to play Loyola, UNLV spent 30 minutes working on the press.

The key to the Rebels’ success against it was an adjustment that put 6-10 center David Butler in the middle to receive the inbounds pass.

Butler’s height allowed him to see over the press, and for the Rebels’ quicker players to get downcourt and take advantage of the broken court.

UNLV also was effective at slowing the Loyola break, sending Greg Anthony and Augmon downcourt quickly and wide enough to guard against the three-pointer by Jeff Fryer or Bo Kimble.

Even in a 30-point loss, Loyola Marymount Coach Paul Westhead got a kick out of the way the game ended--on a three-pointer by reserve center Marcellus Lee, a 6-foot-10 senior who had just entered the game.

Lee, a point guard at heart who enjoys attempting three-point shots, connected from the right corner with one second left.

After the game, Westhead said when he addressed the team in the locker room, “Believe it or not we had a nice laugh. . . How about Marcellus? We got the last one. I am really happy for the guys. I was so happy for Marcellus because we’re not really in it for the wins and losses. That was a great way to go out.”

Kimble finished the season with 1,131 points, the sixth-best total in Division I history. The only other players to top the 1,100 mark are Pete Maravich of Louisiana State (three times), Elvin Hayes of Houston, Frank Selvy of Furman, Hersey Hawkins of Bradley and Austin Carr of Notre Dame.

In winning the national scoring title with a 35.7 average, Kimble gave Loyola back-to-back leaders. The late Hank Gathers won it last season. The only other school with back-to-back scoring champs is Furman, where Selvy led the nation in 1953 and 1954, and Darrell Floyd led in 1955 and 1956.

Loyola’s Jeff Fryer broke the NCAA tournament record for three-point field goals and attempts. Although he was four of 16 Sunday, Fryer finished the regional with 38 successes, breaking the record of 35 set last season by Michigan’s Glen Rice. His 97 attempts also established a record.

Also, from the free-throw line, Fryer was perfect, 18 for 18.

Erasing a mark that held up for a quarter-century, Nevada Las Vegas’ 131 points set a record for points in a regional final.

In 1965, in a 109-69 rout of Providence, the old record was set by a team with a style seldom confused with UNLV’s--Princeton.

Marcellus Lee’s last-second three-pointer put Loyola past the 100-point barrier for the 28th time this season, another NCAA record.

“At least we got one laugh today, thanks to Marcellus,” Coach Paul Westhead said.

With the game long ago decided, Westhead generated most of the excitement in the last 10 minutes by drawing a technical foul with 4:12 to play, screaming at two officials.

UNLV was ahead at the time, 119-86, but Westhead said it wasn’t the frustration of the score or the emotions of the last three weeks at work.

“I honestly was working the game,” he said. “I knew I wouldn’t be working it tomorrow so I worked it today. I wasn’t gonna fold my arms and hope the minutes fly away.”

Times staff writers Alan Drooz and Robyn Norwood also contributed to this story.