After a heartbreaker at home to San Diego State, Nevada needed a win against a Wyoming program that is known to give the Pack trouble.
The Cowboys certainly kept that going, being pesky and keeping it close for most of the game, but a career night by Corey Camper and a combined 51 points between him and Elijah Price was enough for a 92-83 win.
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Scoring Summary
1st Half
Wyoming 39 – Nevada 38
2nd Half
Wyoming 44 – Nevada 54
Final: Wyoming 83, Nevada 92
Offense
It was another quick start for the offense, powered by Elijah Price and Corey Camper Jr. Price started the game with an easy layup that was accompanied by a corner three by Camper. The duo repeated the two scores and gave the Pack a 10-5 lead before a Wyoming timeout.
Camper continued to pile it on in just his second start back after a back injury. He drained a few more threes and quickly reached the double-digit threshold in scoring. He finished the first half with 19 points with four threes and ended the night with a team-leading 31 points.
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“We don’t want to take his [Corey] sweetness away, but I do want him to be aggressive in everything he does, and tonight he was aggressive,” Steve Alford said about Camper’s career night.
Nevada’s offense outside of Camper scored a total of 19 points in the first half, but shot 52 percent from the field. Nevada also made five out of 10 three-pointers in that span.
The second half was the same hot potato game as the first half was. Nevada opened the half with two quick scores and continued to do most of its damage from the inside. Price also continued his trend of second-half surges, scoring 14 points in that second half and ending the night with 20 and 13 rebounds.
There was a slight momentum switch that allowed Nevada to take its largest lead of the night at the time with a 70-63 score. After only scoring a few points last game, Nevada’s bench returned to its regular scheduled programming and added to that momentum.
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A few threes from Peyton White, Amire Robinson and Vaughn Weems helped give the Pack’s bench 0 total points. The offensive momentum kept on driving with a quick 7-0 run capped by an electric steal and dunk by Weems.
Nevada scored 29 points off the bench and 38 in the paint, two sections in which it struggled in the last game against San Diego State.
“We can’t put that kind of pressure on our offense, but I thought our offense was outstanding tonight,” Alford said.
The Wolf Pack ended the night going 61 percent from the field and 63 percent from deep while turning the ball over eight times.
Defense
Wyoming remained resilient through the first half, keeping the deficit to under five points within the first 10 minutes. Most of the Cowboys’ early damage came from inside the paint, scoring 14 of their 18 points inside at the 10:18 mark.
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The Cowboys took their first lead of the night from a Khaden Bennett three to make it 25-24 with 7:18 to go. It was a pesky back-and-forth as Wyoming wouldn’t shy away. They did, however, get hit with a scoring drought from the field for over four minutes.
That quickly turned around and became a 7-0 run for Wyoming with 1:19 left in the first half, giving them the lead back. Nevada’s offense retook the lead for a bit, but another three by Bennett within the final seconds sent it into halftime at a 39-38 Wyoming game. The Cowboys ended the half shooting 58 percent from the field and scoring 22 paint points.
Wyoming’s offense was spread out in terms of scoring, with four players reaching double-digit points. The lead scorer for the Cowboys was Nasir Meyer with 27 points.
Nevada’s defense kept it tight at times with six blocks and two steals through this one. Wyoming hit a wall late in the game, facing another scoring drought of over four minutes from the field. The Cowboys would go on to end the night shooting 52 percent from the field and 44 percent from three. Nevada also won the rebound battle 28-22.
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“I still think our defense isn’t where we want it to be,” Price said. “It was better in the second half, and that’s why we won, but we’re a lot better defensively than what we’ve been showing the past few games.”
What’s Next
Nevada will head to Logan, Utah, to face one of its toughest opponents of the season in Utah State. The Aggies are 14-1 and 5-0 in conference play after another dominating win tonight, this time beating Boise State 93-68 in Boise.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. PST on Wednesday, Jan. 14.
