UC San Diego entered Lawlor Events Center undefeated and left with its first loss. It was a gritty 76-70 win for Nevada, but some strong showings by both freshmen and veterans propelled Nevada to 6-3 with two non-conference games left.
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Scoring Summary
1st Half
UCSD 27 – Nevada 35
2nd Half
UCSD 43 – Nevada 41
Final: UCSD 70, Nevada 76
Offense
The deep ball was off to a great start, with Tayshawn Comer and Elijah Price knocking down a three each in the first three minutes. Corey Camper Jr. followed with his own shot beyond the arc, and Nevada had an early 9-4 lead.
Nevada attacked the rim the rest of the way and got the lead as high as 11 points midway through the first half. Camper Jr. made his second three of the night and led the team with 15 points on 3-10 shooting. The Wolf Pack shot an even 50 percent from the field in the first half, but went just 1-5 from the free throw line.
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Missing free throws is something head coach Steve Alford hates, and I mean, what basketball coach doesn’t hate missing them? Nevada went 13-22 from the line, with second-half misses, specifically from Price (0-4) and Comer (2-3) allowed UC San Diego to get within reach.
Despite some late mistakes, Camper Jr. ended up being the one to ice the game away. In the final 16 seconds, he was fouled three times and lined up for six total free throws. Camper Jr. made all six, throwing in the dagger to help Nevada achieve victory.
“I kept writing toughness on the board,” Alford said. “And yeah, our percentage was awful, but that’s going to be a goal tomorrow when we meet, because they had eight, we had 13, and one of our goals is plus five on the free throws. They got there 11 times, we got there 22, so you’re not always going to make them. The other day, we were 24 out of 26, so it’s not always going to happen, but we made the big ones. We got the right guy to the line the last two or three trips, and Corey stepped up and made really big foul shots. So just thought we made really good winning plays down the stretch, and that was good to see.”
Nevada also continues to get big production from its freshman group, specifically guys like Ethan Croley, Peyton White and Myles Walker, players who Alford said “are freshman but don’t play like freshman.”
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White scored 11 points and nine rebounds. After starting center Joel Armotrading was injured a few games with a chest injury, guys like White have been stepping up to fill the big man presence.
“It’s been a lot of fun,” White said of the freshmen presence. We talked about it before the game. Just keep having fun, keep bringing energy off the bench. Give us a little kick when we come in. And I think we’ve been doing that really well past two games.”
Defense
UC San Diego was shooting 43 percent from three before this game. The Tritons made only one three-pointer in the first half and finished the game shooting 6-23 (26 percent) from deep. Because of that, The Tritons were faced to go into the rim, but Nevada’s defense did well limiting them at that spot as well.
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The Wolf Pack picked up 45 rebounds and forced four turnovers. Although three UCSD players scored in double digits, Nevada was able to use that grittiness to force more mistakes than itself. The Tritons only possessed the lead for 2:49, with their largest lead of the game being by two points when they started the game with a 2-0 lead.
Nearly the last four minutes of the game didn’t include a point from Nevada from the field, so an even stronger testament to its defense, which had to hold it down in the final minutes.
“I thought our defense in the first half was outstanding,” Alford said. “We had some slippage in the second half, but we were willing to give up some twos to take away the threes. And they were one for 10 in the first half, and then they went five for 13 in the second half. And a couple of them were loose balls that just happened to go their way. Both teams were fighting, but really proud of our guys. They had to find a way.”
What’s Next
Nevada will go back on the road to face Washington State. Nevada suffered a brutal loss to the Cougars at home last year, a game where the season began to derail. Washington State is coming off a tough loss however, to Bradley from the Missouri Valley conference.
The game is Sunday, Dec. 7, at 2 p.m. PST.
