Pokes snag No. 4 seed, will play UNLV in Las Vegas

LARAMIE -- A couple of seeds are still up in the air, but not Wyoming's.

The Cowboys have solidified the No. 4 seed at next week's Mountain West Conference Tournament with a 68-64 overtime win over Fresno State and will face UNLV Thursday at 3:30 p.m. MT inside the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas.

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The Rebels secured the No. 5 seed inside their home arena with the Bulldogs' loss.

Wyoming and UNLV hooked up just one time this season. That was a 64-57 win over the Pokes earlier this week in Sin City. Hunter Maldonado netted a game-high 22 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and dished out seven assists in the loss.

Royce Hamm Jr. led the Rebels with 17 points and Bryce Hamilton chipped in with 15.

"It's a difficult matchup," Wyoming head coach Jeff Linder said of UNLV after the win over the Bulldogs. "I mean, from a talent standpoint, from an athleticism standpoint, they're good. We saw that at their place a few days ago. So, it will be nice to have a little bit of rest underneath us and to be able to practice. So, from a prep standpoint, it's not complicated. They also have good players that don't need to run a lot of stuff. You have guys like Hamilton and whatnot, they can just go make plays. They'll have our full attention and rightfully so. I know we'll have theirs.

"... The goal is to go win it."

The Cowboys haven't beaten UNLV on the road since 2003. That's a span of 19 straight losses in the desert.

These two teams have only met in the conference tournament one time. That came back in 2005 inside Denver's Pepsi Center. The Rebels rolled to a 70-63 victory.

UNLV owns a commanding lead in the all-time series, 42-19, including a Sweet 16 win over the Cowboys in 1987.