WSU Vs. UNLV Final Score: Cougars Squeak Out A Win, 35-27

The WSU Cougars defeated the UNLV Rebels by a score of 35-27 on Friday night in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Washington State jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter, with a pair of touchdown passes by Connor Halliday. The first went to Marquess Wilson, giving the All-American candidate his first touchdown of the year. The second went to Isiah Myers, who scored his third in two games.

The defense started to unravel after that. A long run followed by a blown coverage led to a Marcus Sullivan TD for UNLV.

WSU answered back to make it 21-7 when Gabe Marks blew by the coverage on a post route and scored an easy touchdown, the first of his Cougar career. The Cougars scored again to make it 28-10 on an 81-yard touchdown catch from Wilson.

At that point it looked like the Cougars were poised to pull away, but Damante Horton was beaten on a go-route by Sullivan for a 75-yard touchdown on the next play from scrimmage.

The Cougars came out after half, leading 28-20, and struggled to move the ball for much of the third quarter, but things changed just before the fourth began. After a series of screens and short passes, the Cougars were able to move down the field and finally score on a three-yard run by Leon Brooks.

Leon's run ended a WSU drive that went 88 yards on 13 plays, including a fourth down conversion in the red zone to push the lead to 35-20.

UNLV went on a long drive into WSU territory on the ensuing possession, but stalled and turned the ball over on downs.

Halliday gave the Rebels life on a poorly-thrown interception on the next drive, but the Cougar defense was able to hold again and force the UNLV offense off the field on fourth down with just over six minutes remaining.

The Cougars stalled again and gave the ball back to UNLV. They went on a touchdown drive to make the score 35-27, but failed to recover the onside kick. The scoring drive was aided by a 15-yard personal foul penalty on Deone Bucannon.

UNLV had one more shot with 44 seconds left, but could not score. Halliday finished 26-45 for 379 yards, with four touchdowns and two interceptions in the victory.

The Cougs come back home to Pullman next Saturday to face Colorado at 1 p.m. PT.