Spectacular comeback bid stalls as UNLV loses season series to Colorado State

UNLV men’s basketball fell short of a second straight comeback bid following its emotionally charged overtime win on the road against Boise State.

With a chance to even the regular season series against the Colorado State Rams, the Runnin’ Rebels lost, 91-86, Wednesday, Feb. 18 from the Thomas & Mack Center. That ended a three-game win streak for the program that featured an average win margin of around three points. Earlier in the conference slate, UNLV blew a big lead late inside Moby Arena and have now lost four straight games to its Fort Collins foe.

Wednesday marked just the third home loss by the Rebels in the last 10 showings. Moreover, the team is now 8-7 in conference play after suffering the season sweep to the eighth-best team in the Mountain West.

Additionally, this year’s UNLV team is back to .500 with a 13-13 overall record.

After having its third three-game win streak of the season halted, the Rebels will head back to the road for a two-game road trip. It begins Saturday, Feb. 21 against the Air Force Falcons. Tip-off is scheduled for 12 p.m.

UNLV came alive in the second half in order to take Colorado State to the brink, as it won the second 20-minute session by three points. In the first half, the visitors went up by 14 points largely on the heels of an 11-0 run to push the lead to double-digits.

At halftime, the Rebels trailed by eight while the Rams were shooting 63% from the field.

A fast start to the second half by freshman forward Tyrin Jones helped cut the deficit to a single two-point basket before Colorado State reignited its offensive spark.

Soon after, UNLV went back down by double-digits and would trail by its largest deficit of the night at 15 points.

It was the team’s defense late that allowed a glimmer of hope to the home crowd. After forcing just one turnover in the first half, the Rebel defense forced six in the second half including two in the final 40-ish seconds of the ball game.

That late spurt cut the Rams’ lead back down to three points.

While making eight of nine shots during a late second half stretch, senior guard Howie Fleming Jr. stole the inbounds pass while down six points and got it to a sizzling Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn, who continued his magnificent Mountain West campaign.

Immediately after, senior guard Walter Brown got another steal after a timeout but fellow senior Kimani Hamilton stepped out of bounds on a corner three-point attempt. Before the misstep, it appears Hamilton could have been fouled on his three-point attempt.

From the start of the game, Gibbs-Lawhorn was doubled by the Colorado State defense. Even through that assignment, he cashed in on his third three of the game to cap a 9-0 run by the home team to take a brief four-point lead.

Ultimately, Gibbs-Lawhorn netted five first half three-pointers on his way to 15 points in the first 20 minutes. In fact, the first half concluded with a long-range buzzer-beater by freshman guard Issac Williamson.

As a team, the Rebels shot 7-of-15 from three-point territory in the first half.

Gibbs-Lawhorn was responsible for the first made UNLV three of the second half though it came after the team missed its first five tries from deep. At that point, he reached the 20-point threshold for the 13th time this season.

Moreover, he has scored 25 or more points nine times this season including six of the last eight games.

By the final buzzer, Gibbs-Lawhorn finished with 31 points on 11-of-21 shooting with six made threes.

The aforementioned Jones entered the game questionable as he continues to deal with a lingering left shoulder injury. He scored the first four points of the second half for UNLV after being held to just two points in the first half.

Jones would find himself sitting at 11 points after scoring nine of this team’s first 11 points after halftime. He concluded the night with 20 points on 7-of-9 from the floor.

Earlier in his outing, Jones picked up two quick fouls in his first three-plus minutes on the floor. Much to the dismay of Pastner, who earned a technical foul after reacting to Jones’ second foul call of the game.

As a team, UNLV committed five fouls before making its first field goal of the night. At halftime, the squad tallied 13 fouls versus just 11 made field goals.

By the 14:14-mark of the first half, the Rebels had accumulated seven fouls for a 1+1 situation from the line for the Rams. Entering the game, the former ranked fourth in the nation with 21.6 foul calls per game.

In total, seven UNLV players recorded at least two fouls while six accounted for three apiece. Hamilton was the only player with four fouls in the loss but avoided becoming the 30th foul out instance of the season for the program.

Instead, he became the final double-digit scorer for Pastner’s group with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting.