Sellout Crowd at Fullerton Awaits Nevada Las Vegas

Billy Packer’s headset is not expected to make an appearence tonight in Titan Gym. The top-ranked team in the country is, though, and a sellout crowd will be waiting.

Nevada Las Vegas, fresh off its first loss of the season, plays Cal State Fullerton in a Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. game beginning at 7:30.

The Rebels had their 15-game winning streak snapped Saturday with an 89-88 loss in a nationally televised--and nationally talked-about--game at Oklahoma. The one-point loss magnified a decision to credit Las Vegas with two points for a shot CBS replays clearly showed was taken from three-point range. One official watched replays and used Packer’s headset in an attempt to clear up the confusion created when an air horn was sounded with seconds to play in the first half.

The loss prevented the Rebels (4-0, 15-1) from coming into Titan Gym with an unbeaten record, as they did in February of 1983. Las Vegas was 24-0 then, but left losers as guard Leon Wood led the Titans to their 16th straight win at home, an 86-78 upset over the nation’s top-ranked team.

However, Fullerton (1-3, 8-5) is lacking the momentum it had in the 1983 game, having lost four of its last five games and some of its players still feeling the effects of a flu bug that struck two weeks ago.