Jarod Lucas scored 15 of his game-high 26 points in the first half, and Kenan Blackshear dished out nine assists to go with 16 points as the Wolf Pack closed league play with a 75-65 win over intrastate rival UNLV Saturday night at a jam-packed Lawlor Events Center.
The victory gave Nevada (26-6, 13-5 MW) a sweep over their rivals from the south, but the focus in the post-game press conference, in which head coach Steve Alford stood behind his four departing seniors and spoke, was on serving notice that a second-place league finish isn’t close to being satisfactory.
“Hats off to Utah State for winning the league, but we also know that Utah State did not come to Lawlor,” Alford said about USU having defeated New Mexico earlier in the evening to claim its league title with a conference mark of 13-4.
The saltiness stems from the fact only one team beat Utah State on their home floor in Logan, Utah, this season, and that was Nevada, which, because of the Mountain West’s unbalanced schedule, never got the chance at a sweep of the Aggies in Reno. The Mountain West will play a balanced 20-game conference schedule beginning next season.
So, a gauntlet is thrown should the number one seed USU and the number two seed Nevada meet in the conference tournament final on Saturday in Las Vegas.
Jarod Lucas shared the mindset of the Wolf Pack moving forward.
“Last year, we kind of let this game against this same team slip at the end, and we wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again,” he said. “I read a stat today that we didn’t win a game in March last year, and it’s something that’s in the back of our minds knowing we went to the MW tournament and got bounced in the first round. We want to make sure that doesn’t happen again and, like coach said, we’re hungry to cut down some nets.”
Lucas opened the game red-hot, canning his first two shots and tallying 10 of Nevada’s first 15 points, leading Nevada to a 15-3 advantage in the first five minutes. The blistering start had the largest crowd in program history at 11,877 in full throat.
The Rebels took the initial punch and crept back into the game with an 11-4 run of their own, cutting the deficit to five points at 19-14 with 11:42 left in the half. Nevada would surge back on a 12-5 run over the two and a half minutes on the strength of Blackshear’s six points to push ahead by a dozen at 31-19 at the under-eight media timeout.
The Pack missed opportunities to assume a commanding lead at the half, by turning the ball over three times down the stretch, but still went to the locker room up 39-31 having led the entire half.
The Rebels would make some defensive adjustments at halftime and slowed Nevada’s attack enough to allow them to chip away at the Pack’s advantage. Offensively, UNLV relied on a two-person game with forward Kalib Boone, who would lead UNLV with 24 points, and superstar freshman Dedan Thomas Jr., who would finish with 23 points of his own.
The Rebels would take their only lead of the game on a Boone triple with 11:58 left to play at 49-48.
Steve Alford quickly called a timeout to settle things down. The Pack took control of the game with a 17-4 run over the next 6:10 of game action, forcing four turnovers on defense and limiting UNLV to just 1-6 shooting from the field.
Blackshear’s two free throws gave Nevada a 64-52 lead with 5:20 on the clock, and the Pack maintained the bulge through the game’s final minutes. When he hauled down a defensive rebound with 22 seconds left, he walked the ball up the floor with his biggest smile all season on his face and made eye contact with his backcourt partner Lucas, whose smile may have been even bigger. They wanted this game, and they knew they were playing well.
Steve Alford was asked about the team’s mentality headed to the conference tournament and, ultimately, the NCAA tournament, where they are a lock and projected anywhere between a nine and five seed, “We’re going to Vegas playing very, very good basketball, and I can tell you that these guys, they didn’t get to cut down nets in the league, so they’re going to be extremely motivated and excited to play in Vegas.”
Next up: Nevada travels to Las Vegas for the Mountain West conference tournament. Nevada is the #2 seed and will play the winner of #7 Colorado State vs #10 San Jose State at 6 pm on Thursday, March 14th.
Notes
- Nick Davidson continued to be a force in his redshirt sophomore season, hauling down a game-high 10 rebounds and adding 11 points while drawing six fouls against the Rebel defense. Davidson also registered a team-leading +15 while on the floor.
- Freshman point guard Tyler Rolison continues to contribute off the bench with seven points on a perfect 3-for-3 from the field in eight minutes of game action.
Nevada outscored UNLV off the bench 13-4 and also in second-chance points 16-8. - Nevada outrebounded UNLV 33-28.
- The Pack had 18 assists on 24 made baskets.
- Nevada shot 52.2% from the field while limiting UNLV to just 39%.
- Nevada is 29-3 and Lawlor Events Center over the past two seasons.
- The Wolf Pack has been perfect this season when leading at halftime.
