UNLV Runnin' Rebels Suffer First Conference Loss To Wyoming Cowboys

The UNLV Runnin' Rebels men's basketball team suffered their first loss of the season in Mountain West Conference play on Tuesday. In a road game in Laramie, the Wyoming Cowboys snapped the Rebels' three-game winning streak and blew UNLV out by a score of 98 - 66. This was an ugly game with the Cowboys jumping out ahead early and never looking back. Wyoming made eight of their first 11 shots to take 1 20 - 5 lead, which they pushed to 30 - 12. By halftime, the Cowboys were up by 22 points, 48 - 26. Rebels head coach Josh Pastner was not happy about the way his team played in this loss.

"Wyoming played with desperation, and we played soft. We just couldn't score; we missed free throws and layups, and that's a bad combination," Pastner said. "We just got our butts kicked. They just punched us in the face, and we didn't respond. Just really disappointed with our lack of hit-first mentality and our lack of toughness. But that is going to get corrected in a hurry, because we have a quick turnaround with Colorado State on Friday."

UNLV made just 18 - 48 shots from the field at 38%, while Wyoming made 55% of their shots from the field. Perhaps even more alarmingly, the Rebels took 45 free throws, while the Cowboys took 29, but only made 25 of those 45 free throws compared to 23 of 29. That is a disastrous outcome for UNLV and a quick way to sink any chance they had of winning the game.

Kimani Hamilton led the Rebels in scoring in this one with 19 points on 5 - 12 shooting and made 8 - 12 from the free-throw line. He also chipped in with six rebounds, one assist, and one steal, but also turned the ball over a team-high five times.

Tyrin Jones played well again, scoring 16 points with eight rebounds, three steals, and four blocks, which were all team bests.

The star of the game for the Cowboys was Leland Walker, who poured in 28 points with two rebounds, three assists, and two steals. He went 9 - 15 from the floor, 4 - 6 from three, and 6 - 6 from the line.

Next up for the Rebels, they hit the road to take on the Colorado State Rams on Friday night.

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