Better lucky than good...

UNLV seems to be on the side of bad breaks more times than not, so yesterday's unlikely and fortuitous victory was a welcome sight for UNLV fans. In a game that was poorly played by both sides, UNLV was the benefactor of some unlikely events late in the game that led to overtime.

Free throws are always important but never more than in tight games. With a chance to make it a two possession game, Trevor Lyons hit only one of two free throws to put the Falcons up 58-55 with 12 seconds left.

With a last possession and a chance to tie, things got crazy at the Thomas and Mack. Bringing the ball into the frontcourt, Jaylen Poyser had his dribble poked across the halfcourt line by Zachary Kocur. Both players scrambled for the ball 65 feet away from from the basket, eating up 9 seconds from the clock. Both players jumped on the ball like a playoff fumble.

Kocur was whistled for a foul with three seconds left. Had Kocur not dove, it would have left Poyser a 60 foot heave to tie the game, which given the way the game ended probably would have happened. Even having dove on the ball, most times the result in the stoppage of play is a held ball possession or a time out granted to the player who had initial possession.

Even with two free throws, the Rebels faced long odds. The conventional play is to make the first, miss the second, hope for a rebound and quick putback. Extremely long odds. But Poyser missed the first free throw making it even more improbable. The hopes here were for a miss and a tip out to the three point line. Poyser missed, intentionally, but the Rebels never got to the tip, because Air Force dropped the rebound out of bounds. After officials reviewed the play, they decided to put a full second back on the clock from 1.6 to 2.6 seconds - and it was needed.

That's when Jovan Mooring stepped up and banked in the game tying shot as time expired.

Here are a couple of other games in recent memory that can be filed under "no business winning".

March 13, 2008, Las Vegas
UNLV 89 TCU 88

It wasn't a game that featured an incredible comeback or a comedy of errors to set the stage - UNLV and TCU waged an epic battle in the first round of the 2008 Mountain West Tournament. As a two seed, the Rebels were supposed to have their way with the sub-500 TCU squad, but the Horned Frogs had different ideas, armed with sniper rifles.

The Frogs connected on an incredible 17-23 (73.9%) three point attempts as the two teams exchanged bombs the entire day. Perhaps against any other team in the nation that day, the accuracy was strong enough to pull a legendary upset over the best in the country. But it wasn't quite enough to beat the Rebels, who showed an outside sharpness of their own by connecting on 11-25 three pointers.

Brent Hackett led the way for the Frogs with 26 points while Kevin Langford and Ryan Wall chipped in 21 and 15, respectively. The three combined to drain 13 of 16 long range shots.

Wink Adams led the Rebels with 29 points while he, Matt Shaw and Curtis Terry combined to go 10 for 15 from beyond the arc.

With 30 seconds left, Hackett was well covered by Joe Darger yet managed to sink his sixth and final three pointer to stake the Horned Frogs to an 88-86 lead. But Wink Adams' heroics provided the final scoring for the game when he converted a conventional three point play with 3.4 seconds remaining in the game.

TCU had one more shot to win the game, but Hackett's runner bounced off the front of the rim as time expired.

Should the Rebels have beaten TCU that day? TCU played as error free as possible on the offensive end that day and would have defeated 350 other D1 teams.

February 15, 2005, San Diego
UNLV 93, SDSU 91

UNLV trailed soon-to-be rival San Diego State by 10 points with under 20 seconds remaining at Viejas. Hometown fans headed for the exits as did some of the UNLV faithful that made the trip. It was a solid victory for SDSU that would be just a small part of the wins that began the Aztecs dominance over UNLV.

That's what everyone thought, especially the Aztecs. But the next 20 seconds involved a series of Aztec miscues and Rebel big plays - enough of each that an overtime was forced.

Trailing 81-71, Michael Umeh drew nothing but air on a three pointer - but Odartey Blankson, who always had a nose for the ball, grabbed the misfire and laid in what was a seemingly innocuous layup with 17.8 seconds left.

On the inbounds, one of SDSU's most notable players, Marcus Slaughter, had trouble inbounding the ball. The immediate turnover took no time off the clock, but it still didn't give UNLV any real hope.

With 13.8 seconds left, Slaughter made another big mistake - he fouled Blankson on a three point attempt. Blankson, who was a only a decent three point shooter, stepped up and drained all three freebies.

Curtis Terry then fouled Trimaine Davis before SDSU could inbound. No time ticked off the clock and Davis missed both free throws. After UNLV secured the rebound, Jerrel Blassingame raced down the floor and drilled a three pointer with 7.6 seconds left. At that point, UNLV trailed 81-79.

With 5.6 seconds left, the Rebels again fouled Davis. This time he connected on one to give the Aztecs a three point lead.

With that much time remaining, it almost seemed inevitable that freshman Curtis Terry's awkward, twisting three pointer would find the bottom of the net as time expired.

UNLV won the game by two points in overtime and the final collapse of the Aztecs was fitting. Trailing by two points with one second left, SDSU sent Chris Walton to the line for two free throws. His first attempt was an air ball.