FORT COLLINS, Colo. — There are losses, and then there are nights that reveal something about who you are.

Friday night at Moby Arena was the latter for the Runnin’ Rebels.

Two days removed from the collapse in Wyoming, UNLV showed the response head coach Josh Pastner demanded: connectivity, fight, and composure after an early punch. But the central pregame concern, whether the Rebels could finish possessions on the road, lingered until the final horn.

Second-chance points, live-ball turnovers, and missed free throws tilted the margins toward the Colorado State, who closed out a 70-62 win despite trailing deep into the second half.

UNLV answered the “who are we?” question.

It still failed the possession test that was always going to decide the night.

Colorado State didn’t overwhelm UNLV with scheme. It capitalized on mistakes.

In the opening four minutes, the Rebels committed three turnovers: a bad pass, a shot-clock violation, and a travel, and the Rams turned each into fuel. A second-chance three by Josh Pascarelli, followed by triples from Brandon Rechsteiner and Pascarelli again, pushed CSU to a 9-0 lead and ignited Moby Arena.

Pastner didn’t wait.

At the 16:15 mark of the first half, he benched his entire starting five, not as punishment, but as a reset, and sent out a full bench unit.

The message was unmistakable: connectivity over comfort.

UNLV’s bench changed the game.

Al Green scored the Rebels’ first points with a layup. Isaac Williamson followed with a three. Green attacked again. Then Green buried a second-chance three at 12:39 that gave UNLV its first lead, 10-9.

What mattered wasn’t just the points; it was the togetherness. After Wyoming, the question was whether UNLV would fracture when things went sideways on the road.

Instead, the Rebels steadied themselves, defended with purpose, and played connected basketball the rest of the half, entering the break down just 32-31.

They had passed the emotional test.

The Rebels’ best stretch came after halftime, when it briefly imposed the blueprint laid out before tip.

Defense turned into offense. The ball moved without panic. The Rebels built a lead that reflected control rather than desperation:

With just over six minutes remaining, UNLV had quieted the building and put itself exactly where road teams want to be.

That’s where execution had to take over.

From 56-51, the game flipped on a single defensive stand that UNLV couldn’t complete.

Colorado State missed a layup. UNLV couldn’t secure the rebound. The Rams missed again, rebounded again, and finally cashed the extra possession into a second-chance three at 6:40 to cut the lead to 56-54.

In a building like Moby Arena, that’s the margin: one stop becomes three points, and the air changes.

UNLV still had chances. It didn’t finish them.

With the game tight, Tyrin Jones missed two free throws at 3:23. UNLV then followed with a missed layup. Then came the turnovers that ended the upset bid: an out-of-bounds giveaway at 2:37, a lost-ball turnover at 1:01, and Colorado State converting the last one into a layup-and-free-throw sequence at 0:35 to push the lead to 66-61.

UNLV kept competing.

It just couldn’t turn possessions into points.

This game was decided exactly where the pregame blueprint warned it would be:

Those aren’t bad breaks.

Those are empty possessions, and empty possessions are how you lose a road game you controlled for most of the night.

UNLV

Colorado State

UNLV didn’t get the Quad 2 win. But Friday night wasn’t a step back. It was clarity.

The Rebels showed resilience after Wyoming. They absorbed an early punch, stayed connected, and controlled long stretches of a true road game. That mattered. It answered the identity question Pastner wanted answered.

What it didn’t answer, again, was whether this version of UNLV can finish games like this away from home.

The Rebels led for nearly 20 minutes and still lost by eight. That isn’t variance. That’s margin failure. Missed free throws. Live-ball turnovers. Extra possessions surrendered when one stop would have changed the night.

Effort kept the Rebels close.

Execution decided the result.

Until the Rebels can prove it can turn control into closure on the road, nights like Friday will continue to feel familiar, not because the Rebels aren’t competitive, but because they’re still missing the last piece that separates growth from wins in this league.