LAS VEGAS — “Tuesday was gut-wrenching. Brutal. No other way to describe it.”

Josh Pastner didn’t sugarcoat the Fresno State loss earlier in the week. “You score 96 points … you just got to win the game. We just didn’t get it done. Time is ticking.”

He called it a “gut punch.”

Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center, the message wasn’t about style. It was about finishing. As Pastner put it afterward, “Mission accomplishment has to be more important than personal comfort.” UNLV did.

Despite not making a field goal over the final 2:41, the Rebels held off Grand Canyon University for an 80-78 win in Mountain West play. It wasn’t clean. It wasn’t comfortable. “And winning’s hard,” Pastner said. But it counted.

And it came without two starters. Howie Fleming Jr. was ruled out late with an ankle injury. Tyrin Jones did not play. “We’re down four starters,” Pastner said. “And guys came in and did a great job.” That matters. Rotation flexibility shrinks. Foul trouble hits harder. Matchups tighten. Winning anyway is significant.

It also didn’t feel like a typical home game. Grand Canyon bused in roughly 500 students, and two sections of purple inside the Mack were loud from start to finish. Organized. Rowdy. Relentless. For stretches, especially during the late surge, it sounded closer to a neutral floor than a home-court advantage.

When GCU closed on its 19-6 run over the final 2:20, you could hear it.

Momentum has sound.

Saturday, it was purple.

“I’m glad they’re able to buy tickets because it goes into UNLV’s bank account,” Pastner said. “But they have to go home on a loss.”

UNLV (11-12, 6-6 Mountain West) led for 35:09 of game time and built a 16-point first-half cushion after a technical foul assessed to GCU coach Bryce Drew helped fuel a 7-0 Rebel burst. The Rebels closed the opening half up 44-34, shooting 44.4 percent and turning it over just twice in 34 possessions.

That’s structure.

Dravyn Gibbs-Lawhorn set the tone early. He scored 20 of his game-high 29 points in the first half, attacking off the dribble, scoring in the paint, and converting at the line. He finished 10 of 23 from the field and 6 of 6 at the stripe, playing all 40 minutes.

“We knew they were going to be in a drop,” Gibbs-Lawhorn said. “You’ve got to be patient … keep the defender on your back.” When he’s composed and available, UNLV controls pace. When he’s not, the offense can drift.

Saturday, even when the game tilted late, he steadied it from the line. “I kind of got out of character a little bit,” Gibbs-Lawhorn admitted. “It’s on me. I’ll take full blame. Luckily I had my brothers with me tonight.”

The Rebels extended the lead to 74-59 on a Kimani Hamilton dunk with 2:41 remaining. That was UNLV’s final field goal. From that moment forward, Grand Canyon closed on a 19-6 run in just over two minutes.

Explosive, not gradual.

Transition layups. Live-ball turnovers. A Makaih Williams three. A Nana Owusu-Anane three. Free throws stacking up. Jaden Henley attacking downhill.

Henley, who played two seasons at UNLV before transferring, admitted before the game there was extra emotion attached to the return. “Going back to the school that I was at, there’s a little bit more juice for me,” Henley said. “I’m going out there to win.” He nearly did.

Henley scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half and was aggressive late, pushing tempo and applying pressure.

Suddenly, a 15-point cushion was a one-possession game. That’s the volatility Pastner has referenced all season when discussing possession control and habit discipline.

“Things are deeper than they look on the surface,” he said earlier in the week. “You think things are a certain way … and then it’s different than the outcome.”

The Rebels committed 10 second-half turnovers after just two in the first. Their turnover rate spiked from 5.9 percent before halftime to 29.4 percent after it.

The field goals stopped. The difference was that the free throws didn’t.

UNLV went 10 for 10 from the line in the second half and 18 of 19 for the game. In the final 38 seconds, the Rebels went 6 for 6 at the stripe. “Those were huge free throws,” Pastner said.

No missed front ends. No empty trips. Just enough.

Green finished with 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting, including 4 of 4 from the line. Hamilton added 10 points and five rebounds. Jacob Bannarbie quietly posted 15 rebounds and five assists.

“The reason we won today was our five spot,” Pastner said. “They gave us a presence.”

UNLV outrebounded Grand Canyon 41-36 and held a 30-24 edge in points in the paint. The Rebels also produced 14 second-chance points.

On the other side, Nana Owusu-Anane was elite. He totaled 19 points and 13 rebounds. Grand Canyon shot just 38.6 percent overall but lived at the free-throw line in the second half, finishing 26 of 35.

The Lopes turned the Rebels’ late mistakes into fast-break opportunities and nearly erased what had been a controlled performance for more than 35 minutes.

Nearly.

The final sequence encapsulated the night. After free throws pushed the lead to 80–76, Owusu-Anane hit a contested three with 11 seconds left. Williamson answered with two free throws. Henley’s last-second layup cut it to two, but time expired.

No extra possession. No overtime. Just survival.

After Fresno State, after scoring 96 and still losing, the late-game chaos felt familiar.

The turnovers.
The rushed inbounds.
The whistles.
The noise rising.
The opponent believing.

You could feel the tension.

But this time, the “here we go again” moment ended differently.

The field goals stopped. The structure didn’t.

For a team searching for cleaner habits and tighter finishes, it wasn’t perfect.

It wasn’t calming.

It wasn’t comfortable.

But it was, finally, enough.