Basketball: Nevada Wolf Pack suffers costly loss against Broncos

RENO - David Carter didn't recognize his own team Saturday night.

"You practice all week, you work on things all week and then you get out on the court and it's like, 'What are you doing?'" the Nevada Wolf Pack coach said after a 72-66 loss to the Boise State Broncos at Lawlor Events Center.

Carter was as mystified by what he saw as any of the fans who witnessed the final home game of the season.

"It's very disappointing," said Carter, whose Wolf Pack is now 11-17 overall and 7-7 in the Western Athletic Conference. "How we can come home and play like this and let an opportunity like this get away, it's a mystery to me."

The Pack, which also stumbled its way through a 67-59 loss to Idaho on Thursday at Lawlor Events Center, has now lost three WAC games in a row. Nevada will close out the regular season next week at Louisiana Tech (March 3) and at New Mexico State (March 5) before heading to the conference tournament in Las Vegas March 9-12.

"Now we have to learn how to compete for a championship," Carter said. "And it's not like we can't get there. But we have a lot of work to do."

Boise State, now 17-11 and 9-6, didn't even score Saturday night until a 3-pointer by Thomas Bropleh tied the game at 3-3 with 15:05 to play in the first half. The Broncos had just three points through the first six minutes of the game.

The Pack, though, didn't really take advantage of Boise's cold start, taking just a 7-3 lead.

"We came out flat," said junior center Dario Hunt, who turned in one of his poorest efforts of the season with just two points, five rebounds and three turnovers in 16 foul-filled minutes. "We were just not prepared."

Carter couldn't have disagreed more. The second-year Pack coach, in fact, said preparation was the least of his team's problems in the two losses to Idaho and Boise State.

"Our preparation is the same for every game," Carter said. "I know how to prepare for a game. Our problem was that we had players who were not mentally attached to our game plan. When you have one or two guys out on the court not attached to the game plan, it hurts everybody. We had breakdowns on defense, we were stagnant on offense and it's because we had one or two guys out there who were not on the same page.

"We are not talented enough or experienced enough to overcome that."

Olek Czyz, who took a seat on the bench at the start of the game so the Pack's lone senior, Adam Carp, could get a start on Senior Night, gave the Pack a 23-22 halftime lead. Czyz scored 14 points in 16 first-half minutes, including a 3-pointer and a dunk in the final 2:27.

Czyz finished with a game-high 25 points on 9-of-10 shooting from the field in 33 minutes. The junior also had a game-high 11 rebounds, turning in one of his better performances of the season.

"I'm never satisfied whenever I lose," Czyz said. "It doesn't matter what the stat sheet says."

Czyz did his best to keep the Pack in the game in the second half. His 3-pointer cut Boise's lead to 34-31 with 16:10 to go and his dunk made it 36-33 with 15:31 to play. Czyz also had a three-point play to cut the Broncos' lead to 49-40 with 10:08 left.

Boise State, which has now won five games in a row, led by four points or more over the final 15 minutes. The closest the Pack would get down the stretch was 70-66 on another jumper and free throw by Czyz with 15 seconds to play.

"We were doing a good job (on defense) in the half court but they hurt us in transition," Czyz said. "They really took advantage of our turnovers."

The Pack never did contain Boise State guard La'Shard Anderson (23 points) or forward Daequon Montreal (16). The two repeatedly got to the basket either for layups or free throws in the second half.

Montreal scored all 16 of his points in the second half on 7-of-9 shooting and Anderson scored 17 points in the second half on 4-of-5 shooting.

"We let them get comfortable," Pack sophomore Malik Story said. "We didn't have the energy we needed."

The Wolf Pack, which had won 16 of its last 20 meetings with the Broncos, was just 14-of-27 (52 percent) from the free throw line. Boise State, though, wasn't much better (17-of-29 for 59 percent).

"We missed 13 free throws on our own floor," Carter said. "That's embarrassing."

Story was 3-of-15 from the field (0-of-6 on 3-pointers). Burton recovered from a horrible first half (0-of-4 from the field, no points, three turnovers in 14 minutes) to finish with 14 points, four assists and those three turnovers.

Burton hit two 3-pointers in the final 1:29 to keep the Pack close. He cut Boise's lead to 64-57 with 1:29 to go and 69-63 with 25 seconds left.

Story, though, never found his shot. He didn't make a shot from the field over the final 13 minutes of the game.

"My shot just wasn't dropping for me today," Story said.

The Wolf Pack now has two games to recapture its rhythm before the WAC Tournament.

"We know we can play a lot better," Hunt said. "We just have to come out and practice hard and forget this one. That's all we can do. And keep pushing forward."