Red-faced Rebels left in foul mood

OKLAHOMA CITY -- It was like the paint that covered UNLV president Neal Smatresk's face at this first-round NCAA Tournament game Thursday. All bright and red in the beginning. All faded and worn in the end.

All awash as the one basketball player UNLV couldn't, shouldn't and yet did lose defensively sent the Rebels packing into another offseason.

His name is Ali Farokhmanesh, not Ollie from "Hoosiers." That will be an easy comparison for some to draw, that the Rebels lost a Midwest Region game to a group of hard-nosed, overachieving, scarred-from-floor-burns team.

The hard-nosed part is about right.

Farokhmanesh probably hasn't seen 5 feet 10 inches in his young life and yet will be lauded the giant of Northern Iowa's 69-66 win -- hey, you make a 25-footer with five seconds left in a tied NCAA game, you've earned the tag for a day -- but the Panthers are alive because they spent the final 20 minutes at the Ford Center playing their style better than UNLV did its.

Pressure works at times. It doesn't when you foul. UNLV fouled far too much over 40 minutes, which slowed the pace and sent the Panthers to the free-throw line far too often -- 23 times -- for a game that from the outset appeared destined to be decided on the last possession.

UNLV fouled inside and 30 feet from the basket. It fouled on drives and shots. It could never totally control its aggression, to the point that when a whistle was blown, more times than not it was deserved.

"They live on pressure," Northern Iowa forward Lucas O'Rear said. "They get up into you. That's just how it goes sometimes. I don't know if it was because they couldn't guard us, but they were fouling a lot."

Northern Iowa made more plays. It made better halftime adjustments. It made 20 of those 23 free throws.

It trailed by one at intermission and then decided to space things better and begin its offense by going inside more. It attacked the press by attacking the rim.

You don't win 29 games as Northern Iowa has and not control tempo for most of them. This was no different.

The Panthers had 16 turnovers, but only seven in the second half, when the Rebels tried more and more to force a frantic pace. It wasn't going to happen, at least not enough to UNLV's liking.

The Rebels couldn't make enough shots at one end and couldn't guard without fouling at the other. They put Northern Iowa into the second-half bonus with 12:52 left, which is like continuing to park in a handicapped space without a placard.

Eventually, it's going to catch up with you.

"Once we got them into the bonus, it really hurt us," UNLV guard Kendall Wallace said. "We play so aggressive, and when you do that, you're going to get some fouls. It definitely hurt us giving them free points. ... Then they made a great shot to win it.

"It was unreal he hit that. Give credit to their team and the kid who hit the shot."

UNLV rallied from nine down with 7:16 left to tie it on Oscar Bellfield's 3-pointer with 37 seconds remaining, but Northern Iowa's final possession pretty much told the story of the last 20 minutes.

When it counted, the Panthers executed.

Farokhmanesh made the shot, but guard Kwadzo Ahelegbe made it possible, avoiding a five-second call as UNLV ran defender after defender at him, running clock until the ball found Johnny Moran, who then found the one player who had made 4 of 8 3s to that point, who is Northern Iowa's best 3-point shooter among its starters, who was more open than your favorite 24-hour drive-thru.

Farokhmanesh was clutch, and the shot was definitely deep, and Northern Iowa deserved to advance over a UNLV team that next season returns all but two players.

"At the moment, there is nothing you can say to make (the players) feel any better," Rebels coach Lon Kruger said. "I was really proud of their fight to get back into it and tie it up late. I was proud of them all year. I thought they really consistently got better as the year unfolded.

"They had great, great focus. They did everything you want them to do."

The red paint was bright on a president's face here Thursday. Slowly, surely, it began to fade.

So too did UNLV's season.

The Rebels couldn't guard well enough without fouling, and they left the one kid open whom they absolutely couldn't to make a terrific shot.

Someone hand Neal Smatresk a towel until next year.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618.