Coleman, Rebels pull off comeback win at Wyoming

By Mike Grimala (contact)

Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020 | 6:57 p.m.

Mountain West teams would be well-served to not let this UNLV team hang around late in games. And they'd be doing themselves an especially big favor by not letting Marvin Coleman get his hands on the ball when the score is close and the stakes are highest.

Coleman came up huge on Saturday, scoring nine points in overtime to help carry the seemingly moribund Rebels to a stunning comeback win at Wyoming, 78-69.

UNLV is now 4-1 in Mountain West play and 9-9 overall on the season.

Coleman has played a key role in two of those conference wins now; his late 3-pointer spurred a comeback victory at Fresno State in the league opener, and he did the same on Saturday, drilling a triple in the closing minutes to kick off a 7-0 UNLV run to end regulation.

Coleman then opened overtime with another 3-pointer, and then scored another six points from the free-throw line to guide the Rebels across the finish line.

The sophomore guard finished with 14 points in 26 minutes, but coach T.J. Otzelberger said Coleman's clutch play can't properly be measured by statistics.

"Marvin's got a lot of courage and he wants to win badly for this program, for his city, for his teammates," Otzelberger said. "The ball finds him in those key moments and he steps up, and I think that's a testament to his character and hard work. He's proven to do it. Even though I think the numbers say he's not a tremendous shooter, what they don't say is how in the big moments he knocks down big shots."

It was a game UNLV probably had no right to win. Wyoming opened in a zone defense and the Rebels had no answer, shooting 5-of-23 in the first half. Strong defense by the Rebels (and Wyoming's inability to hit a shot) helped keep the game close, however, and UNLV trailed by just five at the half.

Amauri Hardy scored seven straight to open the second half and give UNLV its first lead, but the offense bogged down again again and Wyoming built a 63-56 lead with less than 80 seconds to play.

That's when Coleman imposed himself on the game. Foul trouble limited him to 10 minutes in the second half, but he knocked down a 3-pointer from the right wing to pull UNLV within 63-59 with 1:13 to play. After Wyoming missed a pair of free throws, Nick Blair hit a floater to cut the deficit to two. Wyoming then missed another pair from the line, and Donnie Tillman was fouled on a post-up with 12.9 seconds to play.

Tillman swished both to send the game to overtime.

"That was big time," Coleman said. "I went to him and I was like, 'Donnie I need you, I need you.' And he was like, 'Marv, calm down.' But that was big-time. Credit to Donnie."

On the first possession of overtime, Coleman drilled another 3 from the right side. After a defensive stop, Jonah Antonio knocked in a triple of his own to give the Rebels a 69-63 advantage.

From there, it was simply a matter of Coleman making free throws as Wyoming fouled intentionally to extend the game. Coleman finished 8-of-10 from the stripe to close out a huge (and hugely improbable) win for the Rebels.

After emerging from a boisterous visitor's locker room after the game, Coleman issued a notice to UNLV fans: Don't count the Rebels out, even if they're trailing in the final minutes.

"The fans, we want you to watch the full game," Coleman said. "Even when you're in the Mack, watch the full game to the buzzer. That's big for us. We love the support. We want to get the fans behind us because we're going to turn this program around."

Mike Grimala can be reached at 702-948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Mike on Twitter at twitter.com/mikegrimala.