Rivalry games are tense and dramatic, with the potential to become instant classics. Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center was the latter, and the story of the night was Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn.
He scored a career-high 42 points, shooting 14-of-22 from the field and an astonishing 8-of-14 from three to carry UNLV to an 85-83 victory over Nevada in overtime.
Nevada came into this game hot after defeating Utah State and New Mexico in the past week. Meanwhile, UNLV was down on its luck after losing by
double digits against Grand Canyon on Wednesday
The first half was a back-and-forth affair. Nevada’s Vaughn Weems attacked early, scoring on drives into the lane and finishing with 30 points.
Every time the Wolf Pack built separation, Gibbs-Lawhorn responded.
He knocked down an early three to get UNLV on the board, attacked the paint for tough finishes, and hit another three with 25 seconds left in the second half to tie the game at 35. Nevada went into halftime up two, but the Rebels were still in it.
Gibbs-Lawhorn had 18 points at the break, but he wasn’t close to being finished.
UNLV came out aggressively in the second half with a dunk from Jacob Bannarbie and free throws to push UNLV ahead 40-37 early in the second half.
Nevada answered with a 12-0 run thanks to Weems hitting threes and Tayshaun Comer following up with threes of his own to give the Wolf Pack a 59-54 lead.
After that point, Gibbs-Lawhorn took over. Down by three with 37 seconds left, he buried a massive three-pointer to tie the game 74-74, which forced overtime.
At the start of the extra period, Gibbs-Lawhorn started it like how he ended the regular period, with a three-pointer to give UNLV a 77-74 lead.
Gibbs-Lawhorn was a playmaker as well, finding Tyrin Jones for an alley-oop dunk to give UNLV the lead. Jones finished with 12 points and five rebounds.
Nevada was down one with less than a minute to play, and Gibbs-Lawhorn fouled Tyler Rolison. That was Gibbs-Lawhorn’s fifth foul, and he was out of the game in a moment where his electricity was needed.
Good thing for the Rebels, Rolison only made one of his free throws to keep the game tied.
UNLV, which needed a spark after Gibbs-Lawhorn fouled out, found it in Jones, who moved down the lane in transition for a huge layup.
Jones then knocked the ball out of bounds as Nevada was moving upcourt to drain some clock before Nevada’s final shot. His burst of energy only gave Nevada three seconds to put up a shot, and Rolison missed a three-pointer to give the Rebels the victory.
Getting a win against Nevada can be huge for momentum building, especially because the next team to enter the Thomas & Mack Center will be Utah State, the best team in the conference, on March 3rd.
