Reno Gazette-Journal/Men

[50's PONY]

Pack’s inside game suffocates SMU

Steve Sneddon
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL
1/8/2005 11:23 pm




DALLAS — It was looking almost too easy for the Nevada basketball team.

But the Wolf Pack remedied that in a hurry and it was fighting for survival. Just when their ship looked like it might capsize, they righted it in the nick of time.

Nick Fazekas had 20 points and seven rebounds, Kevinn Pinkney 15 points and 13 rebounds, and Ramon Sessions had 14 points to least Nevada past the SMU Mustangs, 73-66, in front of 3,121 fans at Moody Coliseum.

“We kept fouling. They kept fouling. The intensity was real high,” Pinkney said. “We weren’t playing with too much poise, but I think overall we had a pretty good victory.”

What the Pack players lacked in poise, they made up with gutsiness. The Pack watched a sturdy, 16-point second-half lead turn into a precarious three-point advantage with two minutes left before Sessions started a turnaround with a 17-foot jumper at the 1:44 mark, and Nevada sealed the win at the foul line. Sessions, Mo Charlo and Pinkney each made a pair of free throws to put away the stubborn Mustangs.

“Every game we’re going to win is going to be a grind-out game,” said Pack coach Mark Fox. “That’s the only way our team can be successful.”

The win was the seventh in a row for the Pack, which is 11-3 overall and leading the Western Athletic Conference at 4-0. The win was its first at SMU since joining the WAC before the 2000-01 season. And Saturday’s game was Nevada’s last shot to beat SMU in a conference game in Dallas, as the Mustangs will move to Conference USA next season.

The Pack is 4-2 on the road this season after going 5-8 on opponents’ home courts last season. And the win, coupled with a 64-56 victory at Louisiana Tech on Thursday, gave Nevada a sweep on its first conference road trip of the season

“I’m very pleased to be 4-0,” Fox said. “I really challenged the kids to try to sweep the trip. I didn’t challenge them to sweep the trip until we beat La. Tech, obviously.

“We really challenged them and they answered the bell. I thought our inexperience really showed in the second half. I don’t know how long the stretch was, but it seemed like forever, five minutes or what.”

With its offense, defense and rebounding all operating at peak efficiency, the Pack opened its biggest lead when Charlo’s layup put Nevada ahead, 54-38, with 14:40 remaining in the game. But Mustangs’ star Bryan Hopkins, who had been held to two points and 1-of-7 shooting from the field, hit a 3-pointer that started SMU on the long road back.

Hopkins finished with 16 points, Eric Castro had 13 and Justin Isham 11 as the Mustangs stormed back to cut the deficit to 65-62 on a Castro layup with 2:01 to go, but couldn’t go any closer.

“One good thing, this group has learned from its mistakes,” Fox said. “I hope they continue to do so. We made some very inexperienced decisions ... our emotions ... we were losing our poise.

“Our kids realized at that timeout (with 2:21 left), they realized, ‘We’re not playing like we’re supposed to be playing.’”

Sessions said the timeout stabilized the Pack at a critical time.

“He told us, ‘We’ve got the lead, play like we’ve got the lead,’” Sessions said.

The Pack’s shooting suffered at the end of the game, but it still finished at 24-of-48 from the field. It was the ninth time in 14 games that the Pack had hit 50 percent or better. Nevada outrebounded SMU, 38-22, and hit 24-of -30 foul shots, compared with 10-of-14 for the Mustangs (7-5, 2-2).

“Before the game, we talked about rebounding,” SMU coach Jimmy Tubbs said. “We thought it would be a big key and that was the story … You could sum it up in that area. That lets you know they were the toughest team.

“They shot 30 (free throws). We shot 14. (The officials) called what they thought they saw.”

It was a wearing down process that led to Nevada’s 39-29 lead at the intermission.

Sessions capped a 21-9 run with a layup with 19 seconds left that gave Nevada the 10-point lead, its biggest of the opening 20 minutes.

For the first 12 minutes, it was a back-and-forth struggle, with Nevada never able to get a bigger lead than four points and SMU unable to get ahead by more than a basket.

The game was tied five times in the first 11 minutes before Justin Isham put the Mustangs on top, 20-18, with 8:21 left. Fazekas answered with a three-point play on a reverse layup and free throw for the 21-20 lead, and the Pack never trailed again, finishing the first half hitting 15-of-27 from the field.

“We didn’t get many fast-break buckets, but we ran the offense the way we’re supposed to and got a good lead,” Fazekas said.

Nevada bottled up Hopkins on the perimeter. Without him being effective on drives or jump shots, the pressure mounted inside defensively on the Mustangs.

The Pack had to withstand the storm at the end of the game, but that didn’t detract from its victory. Nevada took a half-game lead over UTEP (3-0), which comes to Reno on Wednesday, in the WAC standings.

“We swept the road. That’s good for us,” Fazekas said. “That gives us a little cushion.”



Copyright © 2005 The Reno Gazette-Journal

[PlanoStang]

They clearly were the better team at least last night. Thought we might nip them during the late run we made at them. Didn't they win a game or 2 during the NCAA tournament last year?

[WorldStang]

They were sweet 16 last year..