The Nevada Wolf Pack men’s basketball team, coming off an impressive road win over the Pac-12’s Washington Huskies, and blowing out Pacific upon their return home, stacked another comfortable win over the visiting Portland Pilots on Saturday night with a 108-83 win at Lawlor Events Center.
The Pack (4-0, 0-0 MW) had six players score in double figures, had an assist-to-turnover gap of 31-10, and outrebounded their opponent 41-26. They’ll enjoy the victory with an 11-day break, but the health of starting guard Kenan Blackshear will be something to monitor.
Blackshear was compiling yet another impressive stat line until after an acrobatic block of Portland’s Tyler Harris, Blackshear landed and suddenly grimaced in pain before going down face first along the far baseline. In obvious discomfort, Blackshear yelled into the blue painted floor beneath him and began reaching for his back. He had to stop several times as he made his way off the court.
While it didn’t look good, head coach Steve Alford seemed less concerned, “It’s just a lower back strain. With 11 days off, I expect that he’ll be fine.”
The West Coast Conference Pilots, entering the game with a 3-1 record and averaging 81 points in their three victories, pushed the Wolf Pack deep into the first half. Thomas Oosterbroek’s layup with 5:41 remaining pulled the Pilots to within one at 34-33.
Fourteen seconds later Jarod Lucas canned a pull up jumper from Blackshear’s dish to begin a 19-7 Nevada run over the next 4:58. The burst was capped by a Blackshear layup, extending the Pack’s advantage to 53-40.
Portland’s Juan Sebastian Gorosito hit a long three-pointer to end the half with Nevada holding a 10-point edge 53-43.
Nevada seven-foot freshman center Jazz Gardner only saw seven and a half minutes of first half action but showed off his considerable talents by going 5-of-6 from the field including a three-pointer and a pair of rebounds. His half of basketball was cut short thanks to picking up his third personal foul.
Despite the double-digit lead, the Wolf pack defense needed to make some adjustments in the second half after allowing 22 Pilot points in the paint and committing 10 fouls. The Pilots held a rather unexpected advantage inside, outmaneuvering the Pack defense 22-12 in that prime scoring area.
The WCC foes from Oregon hung with the Pack for the first four minutes of the half drawing to within eight at 64-56 on a Tyler Robertson deep three with 16:00 left.
Blackshear, manning the point and collecting a career-high 11 assists on the night, fed Lucas for two more of his career-high 30 points the next time down the floor, and Nevada would take control over the next four minutes with a 17-10 run that included eight points from Tre’ Coleman.
The senior forward’s calling card is being one of the best defenders in the conference, but he can also be a sneaky effective scorer should the opponent focus too much attention on Lucas and Blackshear. Coleman’s final line of 15 points included a pair of threes to go with three assists, a block and only one personal foul in 27 minutes while often defending Portland’s biggest scoring threat, Tyler Robertson.
The Pilots never seriously threatened the rest of the way as the Pack simply shot the lights out, converting at a 67.9% clip (19-for-28) in the second half.
Next up: Nevada enjoys 11 days off before hosting Montana on November 29th at 7pm.
Notes
Daniel Foster led Nevada with nine rebounds and added 14 points. Both are career highs for the senior guard from Adelaide, Australia. Foster also added three assists.
Jarod Lucas matched his career high with six three-pointers on 6-of-8 shooting from three and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the line, to push his season stats to 19-for-19.
Nevada’s shots finally began to fall, converting at a 61% clip (36-for-59) from the field and 54.2% (13-for-24) from three.
Nevada’s 13 made three-pointers was one more made three than the first three games combined.
The Wolf Pack had six players score in double figures led by Lucas (30), Coleman (15), Foster (14), Blackshear (14), Davidson (13), Gardner (13).
The Pack won key metrics assists (31-18), rebounds (41-26), points in the paint (38-30).
Nevada flipped the points in the paint script in the second half with a 26-8 advantage.
Nevada moved up to number 41 in the Ken Pom ratings. The only other Mountain West team in the top 50 is San Diego State at number 16.
