Grades: Pack gets an A on reaching the free-throw line

Grading the Nevada Wolf Pack’s 80-68 men’s basketball victory over the UC Davis Aggies at Lawlor Events Center on Wednesday:

STARTERS

JAROD LUCAS: C

We just witnessed the worst shooting game of Jarod Lucas’ 135-game, five-year career. The 6-foot-3 guard was 0-for-9 from the floor and 0-1 on threes in his 33 minutes.

The nine misses are the most he’s made in a game without making one in his career. You have to go back to his freshman year at Oregon State in 2019-20 for the last time he never made at least one shot in a game (he was 0-for-1 against Stanford on March 5, 2020, the 15th time that season he didn’t convert a shot from the floor).

The last time Lucas didn’t make a 3-pointer in a game was Feb. 24, 2023, when he went 0-for-4 beyond the arc against Fresno State, the only other time he hasn’t made a 3-pointer in his two seasons at Nevada.

Lucas, though, salvaged his night against UC Davis by going 13-of-15 from the free throw line (11-of-11 in the second half). It is the most free throws made and attempted in his career.

Lucas has scored 50 of his 122 points this season from the free-throw line, where he is shooting a career-best .926 (50-of-54).

KENAN BLACKSHEAR: A

Blackshear came to the Wolf Pack’s rescue once again. The 6-6 point guard finished with a game-high 25 points to go along with three assists, four rebounds and a block to help the Pack pull away in the final 10 minutes.

It is the third time this season the fifth-year senior has scored 22 or more points and it came just four days after he scored a season-low five points on 2-of-9 shooting.

Blackshear’s struggles actually continued on Wednesday. He missed six of his first seven shots and was sent to the bench twice in the first 16 minutes. But then he heated up in the final three-plus minutes of the first half and stayed hot in the second half.

Blackshear finished 10-of-18 from the floor, making 9-of-11 over the final 23-plus minutes. He scored 14 points in the final 10 minutes, turning a 49-48 deficit into 72-64 lead with 49 seconds to play.

NICK DAVIDSON: B

Davidson battled his way through four fouls to stay on the floor for 26 minutes and produce 11 points, eight rebounds and an assist and a block.

The 6-8 forward scored nine of his 11 points in the first half in a variety of ways (two dunks, three free throws and a layup). He missed a layup, pulled down the offensive rebound, converted the layup, was fouled and hit the free throw to pull the Pack to within 25-23 with two minutes to go before halftime.

Davidson sat out for a stretch of seven minutes after committing his second foul early in the first half and watched the Pack get outscored 10-1. When he returned to the floor with 4:24 left in the half, he scored five points helped the Pack outscore the Aggies 7-0 over the next three minutes.

Six of his eight rebounds came in the second half. He only took two shots in his 14 second-half minutes (missing a 3-pointer and a layup).

TRE COLEMAN: D

Coleman didn’t contribute much to this victory, scoring just three points with two turnovers and four fouls in 30 minutes. The 6-foot-7 fourth-year player took just two shots and two free throws, making one of each.

His shining moment was a steal and dunk for a 76-65 lead with just 26 seconds to play.

Three of Coleman’s fouls (and both of his turnovers) came in the second half, though he still managed to stay on the floor for 15 minutes after the break.

K.J. HYMES: C

Hymes was able to squeeze in 20 minutes of playing time around his three fouls. The sixth-year senior managed to score eight points with a pair of rebounds, an assist and a block.

He’s now scored between 4-8 points in six of seven games this year (13 in the other) with between 2-4 fouls in all seven games.

Most of his production came in the game’s first six minutes, when he had a hand in seven of the Pack’s first eight points on a couple of short jumpers, a free throw and an assist. His dunk off a feed from Tre Coleman gave the Pack a 52-49 lead with 9:11 to play.

BENCH

HUNTER McINTOSH: A

The Wolf Pack might not have beaten the Aggies on Wednesday without McIntosh. The 6-2 point guard turned in his best performance in his two seasons at Nevada, scoring 13 points with two steals.

He set his Wolf Pack career high in points, steals, 3-pointers (3-of-4) and free throws (4-of-6), though it must be noted he’s played just 13 games in a Pack uniform after being limited to just six games a year ago because of a preseason injury.

All three of McIntosh’s threes were timely against Davis, tying the game at 11-11 six minutes into the game and giving the Pack leads of 42-41 and 55-49 midway through the second half.

Everybody not named McIntosh on the Pack roster was 1-of-6 on threes on Wednesday.

He had four free throws in the final 28 seconds of the game to allow the Pack to breathe easier. His steal led to a Kenan Blackshear jumper and a 50-49 lead with 9:47 to play.

DANIEL FOSTER: B

Good things happened when Foster was on the floor on Wednesday. He had three points, four rebounds, an assist and a steal in his 16 minutes.

He had a steal and fed Kenan Blackshear for a short jumper in the paint and a 27-15 lead a minute before halftime. He also drained a 3-pointer to cut Davis’ lead to 37-36 four minutes into the second half.

Foster then had two offensive rebounds a minute apart that led directly to a Hunter McIntosh 3-pointer and a 42-41 lead and a pair of Nick Davidson free throws and a 44-43 lead with 12:46 to play.

TYLER ROLISON: C -

Rolison, a 6-foot freshman, played just 11 minutes, his shortest time on the court since he played just four minutes in the second game of the year at Washington.

Rolison went 0-for-3 from the floor for the second game in a row, though he did have a pair of free throws midway through the second half.

He had an assist on a 3-pointer by Hunter McIntosh for a 55-49 lead with just under nine minutes to play and also managed a parting-gift steal with five seconds to play.

JAZZ GARDNER, JERIAH COLEMAN: Incomplete

Gardner, a 7-foot freshman, saw his fewest minutes (five) of the season. He failed to score for the first time this year, though he did have three rebounds and blocked a shot. He missed both his shots, one of which was a 3-pointer. He’s now 1-of-6 on threes since going 1-of-2 in the season opener.

Coleman, a 7-1 fourth-year player from Alaska, played just the final 33 seconds of the first half and made his only shot (a dunk) which, by the way, was one more field goal than Lucas managed on Wednesday in 33 minutes.

COACHING: B

The Wolf Pack, since coming back from an 11-day break, has now turned in its worst three performances of the year. But the end result is that the Pack is now a perfect 7-0 after an 11-point win over Montana on Nov. 29, a 14-point win over Loyola Marymount last Saturday and a 12-point victory over Davis on Wednesday.

Credit coach Steve Alford’s obsession with getting to the line for the Pack remaining unbeaten through seven games.

When all else has failed this year (the Pack is just 11-of-33 on threes over its last three games) the Pack has simply forced the officials to blow the whistle at Lawlor Events Center.

The Pack was 32-of-44 from the line to Davis’ 10-of-14. The Pack outscored Davis 24-7 from the line in the second half. Over the last three games, against teams from the Big Sky (Montana), West Coast Conference (Marymount) and Big West (Davis) at Lawlor, the Pack is 83-of-109 from the line compared to 33-of-46 for its opponents.

That means the Pack outscored Montana, Marymount and Davis by a combined 37 points while outscoring them by 50 at the line.

That’s not an accident or mere luck. It’s a game plan.

OVERALL: B

The Wolf Pack really only played well over the final dozen minutes of the game. They didn’t play well on the defensive end as Davis, a 3-4 team from the Big West, scored 41 points and shot 52 percent (14-of-27) from the floor in the second half.

Davis led 49-46 with 11:51 to go as the Pack muddled through the first 28 minutes of the game. The Pack only trailed for roughly four minutes over its first six games combined. Davis, though, led for 13 minutes in the first half alone and then for five of the first 10 minutes in the second half.

This Pack team, though, has perfected its formula for victory this year. The Pack outscored Davis 34-19 over the final 11-plus minutes with almost half (15) of those 34 points coming on free throws and another 12 on six short and mid-range field goals by Blackshear.

But that’s what you are supposed to do against mediocre teams at home. You do what you do best down the stretch and — if you are the Pack — that means you go to the line and let Blackshear dominate the ball.