Blog: Wood’s career-high 29 points not enough in 76-71 loss at Wyoming

By Taylor Bern

Published Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014 | 5 p.m.

Updated Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014 | 8:08 p.m.

Wyoming 76, UNLV 71

Game over

UNLV's Christian Wood scored a career-high 29 points, including the Rebels' first 19 points of the game, but Larry Nance matched him point for point and the Cowboys used a strong second half and 78.9 percent shooting at the free-throw line to pull out a 76-71 victory to remain undefeated at home. Wyoming improves to (12-2) while UNLV (9-4) drops the first conference game of the season in tough fashion.

The Rebels travel to No. 13 Kansas on Sunday.

Wood was phenomenal offensively and Rashad Vaughn was great too, scoring 16 on 7-of-13, but the Rebels gave up far too many open looks and committed 13 turnovers, off of which Wyoming scored 23 points.

Four Cowboys scored in double figures and the team shot 53.8 percent for the game, which actually trailed UNLV's 55.1 percent. But the Rebels were 7-of-12 (58.3 percent) at the free-throw line while Wyoming went 15-of-19. Senior Riley Grabau was 6-for-6, including the free throws that essentially decided the game with 12.2 seconds left.

Check lasvegassun.com later tonight for a full report from the Rebels' defeat.

Tonight will be about tempo and pace, because when the second-slowest team in the country is involved that’s always a topic of discussion. And whether Wyoming wins or loses, it usually keeps opponents playing at the Cowboys’ speed.

This is not how any of the Rebels wanted to spend their New Year’s Eve night but it wasn’t up to them. The Mountain West schedule-makers sent UNLV on the road for the opener after it began with a win at Fresno State on New Year’s Day last season, and Wyoming decided to put the game at night.

When a game is on ESPN3, as tonight’s contest is, the home team sets the tip time. In this case that’s 6 p.m. Las Vegas time, and since I can’t imagine there are a ton of NYE options in Laramie hopefully that means the renovated Arena-Auditorium will be rocking.

The Rebels (9-3) have already had a rough start to their conference road schedule. The team bus froze overnight, so they had to be shuttled in cars from the hotel to the A-A.

Throw in a lot of new guys playing in altitude for the first time and it’s impossible to predict exactly how UNLV will respond. The Cowboys (11-2), however, are very consistent with an inside-out attack anchored by forward Larry Nance Jr. (14.5 points per game, 6.2 rpg) and guards Josh Adams (9.9 ppg, 3.9 apg) and Riley Grabau (7.5 ppg, 87.5 FT%).

Wyoming uses 21.7 seconds per possession, the third-most in the country, and forces its opponents to use 19.8 seconds, the 11th-most in the country, according to kenpom.com. One loss was by three points to California and in the other, against SMU, Wyoming led with 10 minutes left before collapsing down the stretch.

Cowboys coach Larry Shyatt said senior Charles Hankerson Jr., a 6-foot-1, 230-poudn bowling ball of a guard, was feeling better after sitting out the last game with a bruised foot. Hankerson and his 8.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg and 3.2 apg are expected to return to the lineup.

UNLV coach Dave Rice said senior Jelan Kendrick, who missed practice Tuesday because of flu-like symptoms, participated in today’s shootaround and should be available. We’ll have to see if that affects his starting status or total minutes (he’s averaging 25.4 mpg).

Bern’s prediction: I tweeted this this afternoon, but in case you didn’t see that (and care), I would actually be more impressed with a win tonight or Sunday at Kansas than I was with last week’s home upset against Arizona. There are a few reasons for that, but one pertaining to tonight is that I will always lean toward a senior-laden team that’s good at home against an inexperienced squad in that’s mostly new to conference play.

That said, I think the Rebels can keep the game within the 7-point spread. Wyoming 57, UNLV 52

Season: 5-6 ATS, 6-5 O/U

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.