Gibbs-Lawhorn, Jones help UNLV end Mountain West slide with overtime win over Boise State

Junior guard Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn and freshman forward Tyrin Jones led the way as UNLV ended a brief two-game slide in conference play.

Coming off a winless two-game road trip, the Rebels bounced back at home to defeat the Boise State Broncos, 89-85, in overtime Tuesday, Jan. 13 from the Thomas & Mack Center. The outcome marks just the second win in the series for the program in the last 12 encounters.

“It was a gritty win,” head coach Josh Pastner said. “You win games through grit and toughness and that’s the whole thing that we have to try to establish here.”

After back-to-back conference losses on the road, UNLV now improves to 3-0 in Mountain West play at home this season. Additionally, the program is 6-2 at home this year.

The victory took the team’s overall record to 8-8 on the campaign.

Another two-game Mountain West road trip looms for the Rebels. It begins with a Saturday, Jan. 17 meeting with the San Jose State Spartans at 2 p.m.

“I feel like on the last two road trips we didn’t know what to expect,” Jones said. “We [went] out there and we haven’t really played back-to-back games like that. I feel like since we got used to it our next two road games are going to really be something because we have a good feel for the court and the game now. And this is a good win too to get us back boosted.”

Jones picked off a last-second heave by Boise State to punctuate an overly successful defensive session during overtime. He recorded three blocks in the win, all of which came in the extra five minutes.

Entering the game, Jones led all the Mountain West with more than two blocks a game.

“I seen that I was in my position,” he said. “The [player] drove and I was blessed enough to be there to get the block.”

Gibbs-Lawhorn interjected, adding, “He saved me.”

Jones’ third block of overtime came off two missed free throws from Gibbs-Lawhorn. Before that, the Indiana native had been the best he’s ever been for UNLV.

Gibbs-Lawhorn posted a new career-high with 33 points on 11-of-23 shooting while drawing 10 fouls in the process.

“I thought Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn was about as good as you could be,” Pastner said. “We tried to do some different things to get the ball in his hand through a lot the game and he responded.”

Earlier in the contest, Gibbs-Lawhorn handed out all six of the Rebels’ turnovers in the first half as part of his 10-point first 20 minutes. On the other hand, he also fumbled the ball away for five turnovers.

“Dra was great for us,” Pastner said. “He’s learning to play point guard [...] This is new for him – he didn’t play a lot last year and he didn’t play anything his freshman year so this is new for him.”

At one point of the second half, Gibbs-Lawhorn connected on two free throws then raced down the court to draw a charge before ending the sequence with a made three-pointer to go up by a point.

Moments later off a missed layup from Jones after a steal, Gibbs-Lawhorn skied through the sky for a two-hand putback dunk.

“I’ve been trying to hold myself at a higher standard of getting the whole team as energized as I am,” he said. “That’s really it.”

Even with his two free throws late to put the home team up three points, Boise State tied the game on a made three-pointer with just 0.2 left in regulation. By the final buzzer, the game featured 18 lead changes and 19 ties.

“End of regulation, two things,” Pastner said. “I was not comfortable fouling up three because we have not been great at free throw line boxout this year. And they had just got a free throw line boxout rebound just a few possessions before and it went out of bounds on us.

“And when you foul, you bring losing involved.”

If it wasn’t Jones or Gibbs-Lawhorn helping seal the win Tuesday night, it was several other players chomping at the bit to make their presence felt.

Senior guard Howie Fleming Jr. started the game with misses on four of his first five field goal attempts. He’d end the first half with a late three to go into the halftime break with 10 points on 3-of-7 from the floor including two made longballs.

In the second half, Fleming showed up again when he drilled a go-ahead two-pointer for UNLV. He’d do it again in overtime when he nailed his third three of the game, this time to go up by a point.

“I thought Howie Fleming made some big shots for us,” Pastner said.

The game’s finishing touches were put on by senior forward Kimani Hamilton, who scored 16 points and hauled in five rebounds in the win. While his night included a posterizing dunk after halftime along with a late go-ahead field goal in the overtime period.

For a team that doesn’t shoot free throws at a high clip, Hamilton converted on three of his four free throw attempts late in overtime to fight off the comeback effort by the Broncos.

“I’ve been very hard on Kimani Hamilton,” Pastner said. “Late in the game, he made some big plays, made big free throws and grabbed a couple big defensive rebounds.”