Complete group effort carries UNLV over .500 with road win over Air Force

Hoping to hit its stride at the right time, UNLV men’s basketball scooped up another win as it secured its second regular season sweep of the year.

Entering play off a five-point loss to the Colorado State Rams, the Runnin’ Rebels wallopped the Air Force Falcons, 91-66, Saturday, Feb. 21. The program has now won four of its last five games with only a couple regular season games left on the calendar.

UNLV is now 6-4 on the road while sitting at 9-7 in the conference standings. That’s good for the sixth spot in the Mountain West. Additionally, the team is 14-13 overall.

Looking for another regular season sweep, the Rebels will travel to Global Credit Union Arena for their second matchup of the year against the Grand Canyon Lopes Wednesday, Feb. 25. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.

Early foul trouble to leading scorer Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn provided the perfect opportunity for someone else to lead the offensive scoring load for the group. Senior forward Kimani Hamilton had no problem assuming that role en route to a career-high scoring performance.

Before that, freshman forward Tyrin Jones helped lead an 11-0 first half run that included his second collegiate made three-pointer in his five tries at the collegiate level. In the opening 20 minutes, he tallied 12 points on a perfect 5-for-5 from the field with six rebounds to complement it before not playing in the second half.

Hamilton went into halftime with nine points on 3-for-11 shooting. Things would turn for him in the second half when he hit double-digit points highlighted by scoring seven straight points. Ultimately, he would score a career-high 27 points after posting a perfect 8-for-8 second half shooting performance.

Because of the early foul trouble, Gibbs-Lawhorn didn’t score his first field goal from the field until after halftime. That would be all he needed in order to re-open the floodgates to his successful scoring stretch during the conference slate of the regular season.

Not long after, he’d find himself in double-figures as well while the team connected on seven straight makes from the field to go up 10 on Air Force. At one point, UNLV went on a 20-5 run before winning the second half, 57-35.

While winning the game by 25 points, the Rebels led by as many as 26 points in the win.

Gibbs-Lawhorn ended the game with 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting.

Senior guard Howie Fleming Jr. recorded the program’s first triple-double since guard Marvin Coleman did it in 2020. He accounted for 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.