{"id":565748,"date":"2026-01-28T06:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/565748\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T06:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T06:57:18","slug":"everything-goes-wrong-in-unlv-basketballs-loss-to-new-mexico-las-vegas-sun-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/565748\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything goes wrong in UNLV basketball&#8217;s loss to New Mexico &#8211;\nLas Vegas Sun News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p itemprop=\"datePublished\">Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026 | 10:23 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>UNLV freshman sensation Tyrin Jones injured his shoulder in the first minute of the Rebels\u2019 home game against New Mexico on Tuesday and didn\u2019t return.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Leading scorer Dra Gibbs-Lawhorn battled foul trouble all night. The Rebels committed 16 turnovers, including two in the second half when passes sailed out of bounds with no teammate anywhere near the ball.<\/p>\n<p>That was just the beginning.<\/p>\n<p>The Rebels\u2019 defense was an eyesore, allowing New Mexico countless open looks for uncontested jump shots and clear paths to the basket for easy layups. Add it all up and the result seems inevitable: an embarrassing 89-61 defeat that will contend for the worst loss of a season already <a href=\"https:\/\/lasvegassun.com\/news\/2025\/nov\/04\/pastner-era-begins-with-upset-unlv-falls-to-ut-mar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">filled with difficult results.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>There was one bright spot: After failing to hit a 3-pointer for the first 28 minutes, Al Green finally knocked down a shot from beyond the arc, prompting a sarcastic cheer from the crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>UNLV is the only team in the nation with a 3-pointer in every game since the 3-point line was introduced in the 1980s \u2014 a streak that includes contributions from Hall of Famers like Freddie Banks, Anderson Hunt and Wink Adams.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the lone link from the glory days of yesteryear to the current program. The Rebels haven\u2019t reached the NCAA Tournament in 12 years, and that streak appears destined to continue this season.<\/p>\n<p>The Rebels\u2019 second straight loss dropped them to 10-10 overall and 5-4 in Mountain West play.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, they had a three-game winning streak entering a matchup against first-place San Diego State, drawing a season-best crowd of nearly 9,000 fans to the Thomas &amp; Mack Center. A victory would have pulled <a href=\"https:\/\/lasvegassun.com\/news\/2026\/jan\/24\/unlv-basketball-falls-to-first-place-san-diego-sta\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">UNLV even with San Diego State<\/a> in the loss column atop the league standings.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, they\u2019ve dropped two straight \u2014 and lost whatever momentum they built from <a href=\"https:\/\/lasvegassun.com\/news\/2026\/jan\/21\/unlv-basketball-erases-14-point-deficit-to-upset-u\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">a come-from-behind win at Utah State<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Not one UNLV player managed to hit double-figures in points, with Isaac Williamson scoring a team-best nine points.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026 | 10:23 p.m. UNLV freshman sensation Tyrin Jones injured his shoulder in the first&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565749,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3723],"tags":[7,217,231,772,1544],"class_list":["post-565748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-college-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaab"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115971427138766372","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565748"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565748\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}