{"id":163873,"date":"2026-02-04T18:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/163873\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T18:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:25:09","slug":"unlv-basketball-loses-to-fresno-state-in-stunning-collapse-unlv-basketball-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/163873\/","title":{"rendered":"UNLV basketball loses to Fresno State in stunning collapse | UNLV Basketball | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading lips is never a perfect science, but the declaration Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn made toward Fresno State\u2019s bench in the final four minutes of UNLV\u2019s 98-96 road loss<\/a> on Tuesday at Save Mart Center was hard to misinterpret.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m big time!\u201d he yelled while banging his chest.<\/p>\n

It was a highlight moment that preceded a collapse for the ages.<\/p>\n

The transfer guard had just hit a shifty stepback jumper that put the Rebels up by eight points. It also made his defender look like an automated opponent in a video game.<\/p>\n

But Gibbs-Lawhorn fouled out just two minutes later, finishing with a team-high 28 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field.<\/p>\n

His exit was only the start of a ridiculous finish to a game that ended with Fresno State\u2019s fan section storming the court in reaction to Jake Heidbreder\u2019s game-winning jumpshot while Gibbs-Lawhorn could only watch.<\/p>\n

Afterward, Gibbs-Lawhorn attempted to choose his words carefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stuff I\u2019m thinking right now is probably not too smart for me to say,\u201d Gibbs-Lawhorn told reporters when asked what was going through his head after the loss. \u201cMost of it\u2019s about the refs \u2026 I feel like that one was taken from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

UNLV\u2019s numbers game<\/p>\n

The nearly three-hour long game was the Rebels\u2019 fourth straight loss and featured a whopping 62 total fouls with six technicals and three flagrants between both teams.<\/p>\n

Fresno State scored 32 points from 72.7 percent shooting at the free throw line, while the Rebels made 69.4 percent of their free throws for 25 points.<\/p>\n

But there was no shortage of mistakes that led to the defeat. The most glaring was the second half, when UNLV gave up 12 of its 19 turnovers.<\/p>\n

The worst of it unfolded when the Rebels allowed a 7-0 Bulldogs run over the final six seconds of the game.<\/p>\n

That stretch was sparked by UNLV guard Al Green getting fouled on a fast break with six seconds left but also getting called for a flagrant foul of his own that allowed Fresno State to make it a one possession game with their free throws.<\/p>\n

Pastner said that while he simply saw Green attempting to get open on that pivotal play, officials told him it appeared Green hit Bastien Rieber in the neck.<\/p>\n

The Rebels then allowed David Douglas Jr. \u2018s 3-pointer to tie it with one second left on the clock only for Howie Fleming Jr. to turn it over when it was time to inbound the ball, paving the way for Heidbreder\u2019s closing shot.<\/p>\n

Rebels\u2019 foul play<\/p>\n

Fleming finished with 23 points, a performance first-year coach Josh Pastner lauded while taking accountability for the closing error, citing a miscommunication. Pastner wanted a foul and admitted he should\u2019ve called a timeout.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not on Howie, because it\u2019s on me to make sure that the guys fully understood,\u201d Pastner said. \u201cHe was a warrior today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Freshman guard Issac Williamson scored 14 points and fouled out with 1:27 left to play, while Kimani Hamilton also scored 14 points and fouled out with 1:07 left to play. Emmanuel Stephen fouled out with 36 seconds left and finished with two points.<\/p>\n

Early blunders included UNLV failing to secure easy transition points five minutes into the game as Stephen collided with Gibbs-Lawhorn because they were both attempting to dunk the same alley-oop pass from Williamson.<\/p>\n

By the end of the first half, the Rebels barely held on to a 50-49 advantage after starting the game on a 16-8 run.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, even Pastner \u2014 famously never at a loss for words \u2014 took a while to find an apt means to contextualize the loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cTough pill to swallow, tough loss,\u201d he said. \u201cReally disappointing. Had chances to win and just didn\u2019t get it done.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just kept fouling late. \u2026 We tried to give the game away 10 times and they ended up catching us on the 10th time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @Callie__Fin on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reading lips is never a perfect science, but the declaration Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn made toward Fresno State\u2019s bench in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-163873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}