Men's Basketball 3/10/2026 1:06:00 PM

UNLV To Open Mountain West Tournament Against Wyoming

First Round matchup set for Wednesday at 12. p.m. at Thomas & Mack Center; Runnin' Rebels have won 6 of last 9.

LAS VEGAS (UNLVRebels.com) - The UNLV men's basketball team, which has won six of its last nine games, will open play in the 2026 Credit Union 1 Mountain West Men's Basketball Championship against Wyoming in the first round on Wednesday, March 11, at 12 p.m. at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Runnin' Rebels (16-15, 11-9) are the No. 8 seed, while the Cowboys (18-13, 9-11) are No. 9. The two teams have met only once this season, with Wyoming winning that game on Jan. 6 in Laramie, 98-66.

UNLV had won two straight games before falling 89-86 on the road at San Diego State in the regular-season finale on Friday. Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn scored 32 points, while Tyrin Jones had a career-high 22 against the Aztecs.

The two-game win streak consisted of a thrilling 85-83 overtime win at home over intrastate rival UNR on Feb. 28 in which Gibbs-Lawhorn scored a career-high 42 points, including the game-tying 3-pointer with 33.4 seconds remaining in regulation, and Tyrin Jones made the game-winning basket with 8.1 seconds left in overtime. On March 3, the Runnin' Rebels dominated Mountain West regular-season champion Utah State, 92-65, at home, for their fourth Quad 1 win of the season. In that contest, Howie Fleming Jr. recorded his second triple-double in 10 days with 12 points, 10 rebounds, and a career-high 12 assists, while Kimani Hamilton (24 points) and Tyrin Jones (17 points) combined to score 41.

The Runnin' Rebels are averaging 80.2 points per game and have five players averaging 8.7 points per game or more: Gibbs-Lawhorn (21.0 ppg, 1st in MW/19th in NCAA), Kimani Hamilton (12.6 ppg), Tyrin Jones (11.9 ppg), Howie Fleming Jr. (9.2 ppg), and Issac Williamson (8.7 ppg). Fleming Jr. leads the team in rebounds at 6.3 rpg (5th in MW) and assists at 3.9 apg (6th in MW). Gibbs-Lawhorn is the team's steals leader at 1.7 spg (5th in MW), while Jones leads in blocks at 2.0 bpg (1st in MW/25th in NCAA).

The Runnin' Rebels are in their first year under head coach Josh Pastner. Although new to UNLV, he is in his 15th year as a collegiate head coach, having previously led Memphis and Georgia Tech for seven seasons each. He holds a career record of 292-202 (.591).

UNLV's roster has only one returning player, Jacob Bannarbie, and has welcomed 13 new faces. The newcomers include eight Division I transfers, a former international professional, a junior college transfer, and three freshmen.

MORE ABOUT THE ROSTER: This season's UNLV squad, which has had to deal with a rash of injuries, returned just one player from 2024-25: redshirt sophomore forward Jacob Bannarbie. The 2025-26 roster added 13 newcomers - eight Division I transfers, a former international professional, a junior college transfer, and three freshmen. The team features four seniors, three juniors, three sophomores, and three freshmen, with a position breakdown of seven guards, six forwards, and a center. Last season, Bannarbie appeared in 19 games (three starts), averaging 1.6 points and 1.8 rebounds in 6.6 minutes, and shooting 52.9% from the field on 17 attempts.

ABOUT WYOMING: The Cowboys (18-13, 9-11) enter the MW Tournament on a three-game win streak: vs. Air Force (66-62) on Feb. 28, vs. UNR (83-73) on March 3, and at San Jose State (88-78). Wyoming has won five of six overall. The Cowboys have four players averaging double figures in scoring, led by Leland Walker with 13.8 ppg. Khaden Bennett is the team's leading rebounder with 5.0 rpg, while Walker leads in assists with 3.6 apg, and Bennett in steals with 1.4 spg. The Cowboys are 3-9 in true road games this season and are 1-0 in neutral contests. Wyoming ranks 34th nationally in bench points per game at 29.3. The Cowboys were picked to finish ninth in the Mountain West's preseason poll. Wyoming's 15-man roster is made up of six upperclassmen. The Cowboys went 12-20 overall last season, finishing ninth in the MW at 5-15. Head coach Sundance Wicks is in his second season at the school with a 30-33 (.476) record, and in his fifth season overall as a collegiate head coach with a career record of 78-79 (.497).

LAST TIME VS. WYOMING: In this season's first meeting between the two teams on Jan. 6 in Laramie, Wyoming won 98-66. The Cowboys' Leland Walker led all scorers with 28 points as three other Wyoming players also scored in double figures. The Runnin' Rebels were led by Kimani Hamilton's 19 points, while Tyrin Jones added 16 points and eight rebounds, and Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn scored 10. Wyoming shot 63.0% (17 of 27) from the field in the first half, including 8 of 11 (72.7%) on 3-pointers, taking a 48-26 lead into the break. The Cowboys made 8 of their first 11 shots, taking a 20-5 lead after the first 7:30 of play. Wyoming extended its advantage to 30-12, with UNLV shooting just 2 of 9 from the field at that point. From that point on, there was a series of 8-0 runs over the course of the rest of the half, two from Wyoming and one from UNLV. UNLV got to the free throw line 16 more times than Wyoming did; however shot just 25 of 45 from the charity stripe (55.6%).

BROADCAST INFO: Wednesday's game will be broadcast live on the Mountain West Network with Nate Kreckman and Terrence Oglesby calling the action. The radio broadcast may be heard on ESPN Radio 1100 AM with Matt Neverett, Curtis Terry, and Steve Cofield on the call. All streaming links and live stats are available at UNLVRebels.com and through the UNLV Rebels App.

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