UNLV staged a significant comeback on Friday night, overcoming a 23-point deficit to defeat Boise State 86-83 in overtime at ExtraMile Arena. Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn led the Runnin’ Rebels with a career-high 36 points, scoring 25 of those in the second half. His performance marked the highest single-game point total for a UNLV player since Bryce Hamilton scored 42 in 2022.
Kimani Hamilton contributed 13 points and Tyrin Jones added 12 for UNLV, which improved its record to 13-12 overall and 8-6 in conference play. Drew Fielder was the top scorer for Boise State with 27 points as four Broncos reached double figures.
The game began slowly for UNLV, which made only three of its first nineteen shots and trailed by as much as 32-9 with seven minutes left in the first half. The Runnin’ Rebels managed to cut the halftime deficit to eleven points after making five of their last six attempts before intermission. In the second half, Boise State led by seventeen with just under nine minutes remaining, but UNLV responded with a decisive 15-0 run over three minutes to shift momentum.
This victory gave UNLV its first regular-season sweep of Boise State since 2019. The team had previously defeated Boise State in overtime earlier this season on January 13. With this result, UNLV has now recorded three separate three-game win streaks during the current campaign.
UNLV shot nearly fifty-eight percent from the field after halftime and converted more than fifty-four percent of its three-point attempts during that stretch. Gibbs-Lawhorn forced overtime by hitting a game-tying three-pointer with thirty seconds left and has now scored at least twenty points in five consecutive games—topping thirty twice this season against Boise State.
“That was a great win. I think Boise State was playing as well as anyone in the league in these last seven or eight games, and better than anyone west of the Mississippi. They are very well coached. Leon Rice is one of the best coaches and they are a very good basketball team. But that was a great, gritty, tough win. Being down 23 and for us to stay together, stay connected, fight, scrap, claw, kick, whatever we had to do to find a way to come back to win that game was awesome in a really hard place to win at. Just so proud of our young men,” said UNLV head coach Josh Pastner.
Boise State entered Friday’s contest having won six out of its previous seven games since losing at UNLV earlier this year in overtime.
Gibbs-Lawhorn played all forty-five minutes on Friday night and finished shooting thirteen-for-twenty-two from the field—including six-for-twelve from beyond the arc—and made all four free throw attempts while collecting three rebounds and two steals.
Hamilton hit five-of-eight shots (three-of-four from deep) along with four rebounds; Jones went five-for-ten from the floor with five boards and recorded four blocks—a game high.
Fielder made nine-of-fourteen shots including five-of-six threes for Boise State.
UNLV committed just eight turnovers compared to Boise State’s total while outscoring them twenty-one-to-twelve on points off turnovers. The Runnin’ Rebels also secured eleven offensive rebounds versus seven by their opponents and posted sixteen second-chance points compared to six by Boise State.
Boise State attempted ten more free throws than UNLV (twenty-three versus thirteen), outscoring them twenty-one-to-ten at the line.
UNLV has now made at least one three-pointer in every game since college basketball adopted that rule in 1986—a streak spanning over twelve hundred games.
The Runnin’ Rebels will next host Colorado State at Thomas & Mack Center on Wednesday, February 18th at eight p.m., with tickets available through their official website or box office.
