3-pointers key Nevada's win over Spartans

RENO - The Nevada Wolf Pack is even surprising itself these days.

"We shot 32 threes?," smiled point guard Deonte Burton. "I didn't know that until now. I'm surprised."

Imagine how the San Jose State Spartans felt.

The Wolf Pack drained half of those 32 threes -- a school-record 16 -- in rolling over the Spartans 81-57 in front of 4,730 fans at Lawlor Events Center Thursday night.

"We didn't want to shoot that many threes," said senior Olek Czyz, who hoisted only one of the 32 Pack shots from beyond the arc. "But they were falling."

Over and over again.

The 16 threes eclipsed the Pack's school record of 15 set on Feb. 11, 1999 in an 89-77 victory over Cal State Fullerton at Lawlor. The 32 attempts are also a school record, beating the old record of 29, which was done three times. The 16 successful threes and the 32 attempts are also Western Athletic Conference highs this season.

"It was their night to shoot the ball," Spartans head coach George Nessman said. "And they shot it well. They simply shot us out of the ballgame."

Sophomore guard Jerry Evans led the way with a career-high five 3-pointers in six attempts.

"Jerry shot it tremendously tonight," Burton said.

He wasn't the only one.

Burton and Malik Story each had three. Story was 0-for-5 in the first half from downtown and then hit 3-of-4 in the second half. The other five Pack treys were compliments of bench players Brice Crook, Keith Fuetsch, Jordan Finn, Jordan Burris and Kevin Panzer.

The 3-pointer for Crook, a former Carson and Galena High player, came on his first and only shot in his Pack career.

"In practice he never misses," Czyz smiled.

At times it seemed like the Pack, which also had a season-high 25 assists and 81 points, wouldn't miss against the Spartans. After missing six of their first seven 3-pointers, the Pack ended up converting 15 of its last 25 from long distance.

"We were very patient on the offensive end," said coach David Carter, whose Wolf Pack have now won 10 games in a row and 13 of their last 14 to improve to 13-3 overall and 3-0 in the WAC.

That patience took time to develop.

"I thought we were shooting them too quickly at first," Carter said. "But then we got in a good rhythm."

The Pack's high for 3-pointers this year was 12 in a 78-54 win over Pacific on Nov. 17. They also had not attempted more than the 26 they let fly in a 78-71 win at Utah State on Jan. 7.

"It's a fine line," said Carter, when asked if he thought his team had shoot too many from beyond the arc. "But when teams are playing zone you have to shoot the three."

Panzer, Finn, Burton, Evans and Burris all had 3-pointers in a span of just over nine minutes in the first half as the Pack took a slim 10-9 lead and turned it into a 33-21 advantage. Story had two from long distance and Burton and Evans each had one in the first seven-plus minutes of the second half as the Pack expanded its 39-26 halftime lead into a 53-36 cushion.

"Everyone contributed," said Czyz, who scored 10 points the old fashioned way, on five two-pointers.

Dario Hunt, who had just six points, was the only other Pack player who scored who did not have a 3-pointer. Fuetsch hit his 3-pointer with 2:23 to play and Crook, who only played two minutes, hit his with just 1:03 to go.

"I was a little surprised they stayed in a zone for the full 40 minutes," Carter said.

San Jose State cut the Pack's lead to 11 (42-31) early in the second half but the threes by Burton and Evans pumped the lead back up to 53-36 five minutes later.

The Spartans, which missed 17 of their 23 3-point attempts, never could find any rhythm offensively, shooting just 32% (20-of-63) from the field.

Spartans point guard Keith Shamburger, averaging 14.7 points a game entering the evening, was 1-for-11 for five points in 32 minutes. Wil Carter, who had 21 points and 20 rebounds in an 82-69 loss at Hawaii last Saturday, was 0-for-6 from the floor and scored just two points in 16 minutes.

"We do a nice job of helping each other on defense," said Evans, who finished with a game-high 19 points and seven rebounds. "That's what we depend on."

"We did a real nice job on Shamburger," said Carter, whose Wolf Pack will host Hawaii on Saturday (7 p.m.) at Lawlor. "That was something we focused on."

The Wolf Pack is now enjoying its first double-digit winning streak since it also won 10 in a row from Dec. 12, 2006 through Jan. 18, 2007.

"We've (almost) flipped our record from last year," said Czyz, referring to the Pack's 4-12 record last year after 16 games. "We've worked hard for this. We feel like we deserve it."