Inconsistent Rebels finish off Fresno State in Mountain West opener — PHOTOS

UNLV is getting used to riding the proverbial roller coaster, be it in games or the early season. Up and down they go, from one sequence to the next, from one game to the next.

The key, of course, is making sure the last ride is best.

That was the case Saturday at the Thomas &Mack Center when the Rebels soared and plunged and climbed and dipped before putting together one final surge to pull away from Fresno State in an 84-72 win to open Mountain West play.

Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn scored 28 points, and Kimani Hamilton and Tyrin Jones added 20 and 18, respectively, to help put away the Bulldogs.

In doing so, the Rebels (5-6, 1-0) survived some dramatic twists and turns, including a roaring start in which they built a 15-point first-half lead followed by a dramatic fall in which they actually trailed at halftime.

They finally settled down in the second half and pulled away with a 14-4 run to turn a 70-66 advantage into an 84-70 lead with 38 seconds remaining to secure the win.

As hard as it might have been on the nerves, the final result and the lessons learned made it all worth it. The Rebels didn’t cave after the Bulldogs made their push; they responded accordingly.

“This season, we’ve got a bad habit of (not) managing the other team’s runs and kind of limiting (the damage),” Gibbs-Lawhorn said. “And then on top of that, getting back on our run. … I feel like we executed that perfectly tonight.”

Learning to respond

The perfect execution was never more apparent than the big punch UNLV threw to finally put the Bulldogs away. With the game very much hanging in the balance, they dug in defensively and attacked the boards. And when loose balls hit the floor, they fought to come up with them.

All of which led to offensive success and, ultimately, control of the game.

But it all started with their effort when Fresno State had the ball.

“When we’re really good defensively, we’re really good offensively,” UNLV coach Josh Pastner said. “It’s just a correlation. You can’t do it the other way. It just doesn’t work the other way. You can’t be really good offensively and think I want to be good defensively.”

The Rebels trailed 41-39 at halftime after an almost inexplicable turn of events.

UNLV opened the game with a 29-14 run in which they sank 83 percent of their shots from the field, throttled Fresno State (6-6, 0-1) with a ball-hawking defense that forced turnovers and challenged shots, and outhustled the Bulldogs on the backboard.

Eleven minutes into the game, the Rebels were headed toward an easy conference-opening win.

Looks can be deceiving, though.

As quickly as it came, it went away as the Bulldogs pummeled the Rebels with a 17-2 run to tie the score at 31 on a 3-pointer by Jake Heidbreder.

The Bulldogs eventually took the lead 36-35 on a 3-pointer by David Douglas, then grabbed a 41-39 lead when Douglas banked in a long 3-point heave at the buzzer.

The problem was obvious. Whereas UNLV began the game shooting 83 percent from the field, they slumped all the way to 52 percent shooting by the time the Bulldogs pulled ahead.

UNLV also turned the ball over eight times, leading to 13 Bulldogs’ points. Fresno State’s bench outscored the Rebels’ bench 9-0.

Gibbs-Lawhorn had 16 first-half points for UNLV, and Jones had 12.

It all changed in the second half. And it began with the right mindset.

“Just playing possession to possession, having the next possession mentality,” Jones said. “If we miss a shot, come back on defense. Just a don’t-break mentality. Staying together is a big thing coming down the stretch.”