Dedan Thomas Jr. missed a shot to tie at the buzzer, and the UNLV men’s basketball team lost a 63-61 nail-biter to Wyoming on Tuesday at the Thomas & Mack Center.
But if you ask guard Jaden Henley, coach Kevin Kruger warned the Rebels of what would happen before they even stepped foot on the court.
“They’re not gonna come in here and lay down just because we’ve got two big wins. They’re gonna come here and try to punch us in the mouth,” Henley recalled of Kruger’s pregame message. “And that’s what they did.”
The defeat ended the momentum of the Rebels (11-8, 5-3 Mountain West), who had posted two straight upset victories over then-No. 22 Utah State and San Diego State. It also broke a three-game losing streak for the struggling Cowboys (10-9, 3-5).
Even though Wyoming got away from the Rebels late with a 6-0 run to storm to a 52-42 lead with less than five minutes to play, UNLV had a chance to win it at the buzzer after going on an 8-0 run over a 38-second span in the final minute to make it a one-possession game with 7.9 seconds left.
The scoring explosion was capped by a second-chance layup from Thomas that electrified the crowd before Kruger called a timeout to game-plan for the final possession. Wyoming missed the front end of a one-and-one at the free-throw line, and Thomas missed a jumper at the buzzer.
Thomas led UNLV with 17 points, and Obi Agbim led the Cowboys with 19.
Wyoming shot 50 percent on 3-pointers (14-for-28), while the Rebels hit 26.3 percent of their shots from behind the arc (5-for-19).
The Cowboys helped earn the win by securing eight of their offensive rebounds over the final six-plus minutes.
Here are three takeaways from the loss:
1. Slow start
There were two lead changes in the first half and three ties. The largest discrepancy after those first 20 minutes boiled down to UNLV’s scoring struggles, especially at the perimeter.
It didn’t matter much that the Rebels were outscoring the Cowboys in the paint 14-8, or that they’d recorded 10 second-chance points compared to Wyoming’s two.
The Rebels were only able to make two 3-pointers in the half while the Cowboys had five, and UNLV only scored nine points in the first 10 minutes on 3-of-16 shooting from the field.
“Offensively, we were stagnant,” Kruger said. “We were on our heels. We were just kind of passing it and waiting for somebody else to do something.”
When asked if there were any indicators entering the game that the Rebels were off, Kruger said the team’s Monday workout led him to believe the opposite.
“It was one of our best practices of the year. It was crisp, it was sharp. Guys were talking and doing exactly what we wanted them to do,” he said. “Coming out flat was a little bit of a surprise.”
2. Lineup change
Kruger made a change to his starters for the matchup, substituting freshman center Pape N’Diaye for junior Jeremiah “Bear” Cherry.
The move marked Cherry’s first game off the bench for UNLV and N’Diaye’s first career start. It took just four minutes for Cherry to check in, and he still had a positive impact on the game, finishing with 10 points and nine rebounds.
One of his layups put the Rebels in the lead for the first time with four minutes remaining in the first half. He missed the free throw for a three-point play, but he made a hook shot after his own offensive rebound to increase the Rebels’ lead to 22-18.
“I tried to just come in and do the same thing I would’ve done if I started,” Cherry said. “I just had some miscommunications with Coach Kruger the other day, so I had to get back right and I’ll be starting on Saturday.”
3. Too little, too late
Thomas timed a floater with the buzzer to cut the Cowboys’ advantage to 25-24 entering halftime.
The Rebels came out of halftime on a 8-3 run, forcing Wyoming coach Sundance Wicks to call a timeout once a Julian Rishwain steal turned into a Jaden Henley 3-pointer that gave the Rebels a 32-28 lead.
Wyoming regained the lead for good with under 12 minutes to play and survived the Rebels’ late push.
Kruger’s final analysis cited an overall lack of cohesion.
“We’ve got to have a better intent, better energy, the bench has got to be more alive,” Kruger said. “We need to be together. Need to play for each other, and tonight, we just didn’t have enough of that.”
UNLV next hosts conference leader New Mexico (16-4, 8-1) at noon Saturday.
Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.