Wyoming Cowboys lose 20th consecutive road game at UNLV

Wyoming finished 4-for-25 on 3-pointers and with 14 turnovers that led to 21 points on the other end during a 62-48 defeat to UNLV on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

The Cowboys (12-10, 5-4 Mountain West) lost for the 20th consecutive time to the Rebels (12-9, 5-4) in regular-season road games dating back to 2003.

UW did beat UNLV in the 2022 MW Tournament in Las Vegas.

“I’m disappointed in the final score,” UW head coach Jeff Linder said. “We came into the game with a lot of confidence knowing that we were playing a really talented UNLV team. I mean, having played against some of the teams in our league thus far, from a size standpoint, length and athleticism, they’re as big as anybody in our league.”

Linder’s team played solid half-court defense but went on a scoring drought of 10 minutes, 32 seconds spanning the end of the first half and the start of the second half.

UNLV came out of the halftime locker room and went on an 11-0 run to take a commanding 42-23 lead before Sam Griffin finally scored to stop the bleeding with 12:39 remaining.

UW trailed by as many as 23 points (48-25) before a late push. Mason Walters completed a three-point play to cap a 10-0 run by the Cowboys.

Griffin converted a layup to get UW within 56-44 with 2:55 remaining but freshman Dedan Thomas closed the lid on the coffin with back-to-back 3s for the Rebels.

Cam Manyawu scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds off the bench to lead UW. Brendan Wenzel, who was playing with three displaced ribs, added 12 points on 4-for-13 shooting.

Griffin and Kot combined for 15 points on 6-for-23 shooting.

“For us, we’re one of the top 10 3-point shooting teams in the country and when you go 4-for-25,” Linder said. “A lot of those were pretty open looks. Akuel goes 0-for-8, Sam goes 1-for-6, and if those two guys go 1-for-14 it’s going to be hard for us to win.”

The Cowboys trailed 31-23 at the intermission after shooting 3-for-16 (18.8%) on 3s.

UNLV led 22-13 before Griffin countered with a 3 and Wenzel scored on a sweet spin move in the paint to get the Pokes within four points.

Thomas capped a 9-3 run with a floater to make the score 31-21.

Wenzel, who scored a career-high 25 points during Tuesday’s win at Air Force, led UW with eight points at the break.

UW held Kalib Boone scoreless on 0-for-6 shooting and limited Rob Whaley to eight points, but Thomas and Keylan Boone scored 14 points each for the Rebels.

UNLV finished 8-for-20 on 3s with four turnovers and 14 assists.

“We did a really good job with our game plan of trying to make things really hard for Kalib Boone, who had been playing at a really high level coming, in along with Robert Whaley,” Linder said. “For Boone not to score, for Waylee to have eight points, we did our job there.”

The Cowboys, who are 8-1 at home, will play No. 19 New Mexico on Tuesday night at the Arena-Auditorium.