Kenan Blackshear overcame a rough start to have a defining game at Wednesday’s match between the Wolf Pack and UC Davis Aggies. Nick Davidson gave a supreme effort on both ends of the floor, and the Pack set a high-water mark with 44 free throw attempts, breaking away late from a dogged Aggies squad to earn an 80-68 win at Lawlor Events Center.
Nevada (7-0, 0-0 MW) played their most complete game of the season last time out versus Loyola Marymount, absolutely dominating a team that had given much of this squad trouble in the past. Did the Pack set a standard of play with that effort? The Big West’s Aggies would be a good chance to keep things rolling before heading down to Las Vegas to take on the 8-1 Drake Bulldogs.
The Wolf pack has owned the areas close to the rim this season, but the Aggies featured a pair of substantial defenders handling the paint in 7-foot, 265-pound Francesco Borra and 6-9, 230-pound Niko Rocak. Nevada’s inside-to-outside offense would be challenged.
Further complicating things were the Aggies entering the game ranked third in the nation in forcing turnovers, averaging 19.7 per game. Adding to the intrigue was the return of former Nevada guard Kane Milling.
The first half saw the visitors from California’s Central Valley do an outstanding job defending the lane, holding the Wolf pack to a paltry 34.5 percent shooting from the field. That number only crept out of the twenties thanks to a 15-7 run to close the half on 6-for-10 shooting.
“Their kids played really hard,” said head coach Steve Alford. “I thought they came in and had a good game plan and played extremely hard. It took us a while to get going.”
Nick Davidson led Nevada with nine first-half points. The Nevada backcourt of Jarod Lucas and Blackshear was a combined 3-for-16, and both were visibly frustrated. The usually rock-solid Wolf Pack free-throw shooting was also sub-par, going 8-of-14 from the line.
Despite a poor offensive half, Nevada went to the locker room with a slim 29-27 lead thanks to solid defense limiting UC Davis to 37 percent from the field and only four free throw attempts — plenty to improve on in the second 20 minutes.
The scrappy Aggies smelled an opportunity to perhaps steal a quality road win against a Nevada team having an off night. Coming out fast, they won the first five minutes of the half with a 13-8 run that included a pair of three-pointers, propelling them to a 40-37 lead with 15:05 left.
But Nevada would surge with a 16-8 run of their own on the strength of a pair of triples from Hunter McIntosh, who would have his best game in a Nevada uniform with 13 points, including 3-of-4 from deep, to grab a 55-49 advantage with 8:53 on the clock.
The last eight minutes would be a battle to contain UCD’s’ Elijah Pepper and Kane Milling. Pepper would pour in 14 points in the half and Milling’s 10 second-half points to keep the Aggies in the game. The Aggies, however, had no answer for the Pack’s aggressiveness on offense, sending Nevada to the line like a merry-go-round 44 times in all.
Jarod Lucas (0-for-9 from the field) was completely shut down by the grabby Aggie defense but made his mark from the line, going 13-for-15 and snagging five rebounds.
With Lucas struggling, Blackshear showed why he is so crucial to the fortunes of this Wolf Pack club and one of the toughest matchups in the nation. The 6-6, 215-pound guard put the Wolf Pack on his back after a rough start, going 9-for-10 from the field over the last 23 minutes of the game.
With less than two minutes left and UC Davis still hanging around at 68-62, Blackshear walked the ball up the floor, calculated a path to the rim, drove to his left and banked a little jumper off the window despite having three Aggies converge on him to push the lead to 70-62 with 1:32 left.
Pepper would score his 20th point of the night for the Aggies on the next trip down the floor. Blackshear calmly picked his spot again, driving the right edge of the paint, hitting a soft little fadeaway for his game-high 25th point to reclaim the eight-point advantage with 49 seconds left, and forcing Davis to play the foul and hope game.
McIntosh and Lucas would go 6-of-6 from the line the rest of the way, and Nevada sent the Aggies back to the farm.
Alford reflected on the win.
“We needed a game like this,” he said. “We haven’t been challenged, and we needed to be challenged. We were down by six or seven at some point, and the most we’ve been down is two all season, so we needed to see how our guys are going to respond, and we found a way.”
Next up: Nevada travels south to Henderson, Nev. to take on Drake in the Jack Jones Classic on Saturday, December 9 at 4:30 pm. They return home to host Weber State on Wednesday, December 13, at 7 pm.
Notes
- Nick Davidson led Nevada with eight rebounds, one block and was 6-for-6 from the line.
- Davidson is a perfect 22-for-22 from the line this season.
- Nevada attempted a season-high 44 free throws, making 32. The Aggies attempted 14, making 12 for a +20 differential.
- The Pack drew 33 fouls while committing just 17.
- Hunter McIntosh was an eye-popping +30 in his 25 minutes on the court.
- Despite UC Davis entering the game having forced 19.7 turnovers a game, Nevada committed only 10 turnovers while giving it away to Nevada 20 times.
- Nevada converted those 20 turnovers into 28 points.
- Buoyed by Blackshear’s 7-of-8 shooting, the Pack shot 52 percent from the field, 43 percent from beyond the arc, and 80 percent from the line in the second half.
- Despite all 13 of his points coming at the free throw line, Jarod Lucas extended his streak of scoring in double figures to seven games.
