Michael McGarvey
A look at the key moments, players and plays from the Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball team's 66-63 loss to the Wyoming Cowboys on Saturday afternoon at Laramie, Wyo …
KEY NEVADA RUN
The Wolf Pack only mustered enough consistency on Saturday to have one meaningful run. The Pack outscored the Cowboys 8-0 over a four-minute stretch to turn a 23-16 deficit with 4:34 left in the first half into a 24-23 lead with 27 seconds left before the break. A 3-pointer by Xavier DuSell started the run and a jumper by Kobe Sanders capped it off. But even that mini-Pack run was sprinkled with missteps and mistakes as Nick Davidson and Tyler Rolison turned over the ball and Tre Coleman missed a free throw and a layup.
KEY WYOMING RUNS
Wyoming, too, struggled to play solid basketball for more than brief moments on their own court. The Cowboys did go on a 9-0 run to turn a 9-8 deficit with 12:49 left in the first half into a 17-9 lead with 9:56 to go. An 8-0 Wyoming run midway through the second half turned a 36-33 Wolf Pack lead with 14:31 to play into a 41-36 Wyoming lead with 12:12 to go. Neither team led by more than three over the final 10 minutes of the game.
KEY COACHING DECISION
Nevada coach Steve Alford replaced Xavier DuSell and Brandon Love in the starting lineup with Daniel Foster and Justin McBride and watched his offense struggle to find any rhythm. Love, who played in the Pack's first dozen games, did not play at all while DuSell, one of the top 3-point shooters in the nation, was on the floor for just 12 minutes and produced just three points. Foster and McBride combined for 55 minutes and produced 14 points (11 by McBride), six rebounds (five by McBride), five fouls, two assists, three turnovers, two steals and three blocks (all by McBride).
KEY LOSS OF IDENTITY
The Wolf Pack was just 5-of-11 on threes against Wyoming. The success rate was impressive (46 percent) but the lack of attempts was disturbing considering how much the offense struggled. The 11 3-point attempts is the second fewest this season for the Wolf Pack, behind the 10 it took in the second game (63-53 win over Washington) of the season. The Pack was 13-of-33 and 18-of-36 on threes in consecutive non-league wins over South Dakota State and Texas Southern on Dec. 11 and 14 but followed that up by going 11-of-27 combined on threes in losses to Colorado State and Wyoming (Dec. 21, 28) to open the Mountain West season. Kobe Sanders, Justin McBride, Tre Coleman, Tyler Rolison and Xavier DuSell were just a combined 1-of-3 on threes on Saturday after going 79-of-188 (42 percent) combined over the first 12 games.
KEY COWBOY STRATEGY
The Wyoming defense basically suffocated the Pack offense and forced Nevada to play the Cowboys' methodical slow-paced style. The Pack shot well enough (45 percent on field goals, 46 percent on threes) but its offense seemed to be stuck in a blinding blizzard a few miles away out on Interstate 80 outside the Cowboys' Arena-Auditorium. The Pack put up just 47 shots the entire game, its second fewest (44 against VCU on Nov. 22) this season. The 21 successful field goals equals its season low (done three times before against Washington, VCU and Loyola Marymount). The Pack, according to the official stats, also did not have a single fast-break point (neither did Wyoming, which also seemed like it was digging out of a snowdrift the entire game on offense).
KEY WYOMING STAT
Wyoming's bench outscored the Pack bench, 30-12. It's difficult, though, to read much into those numbers because the Pack lineup was discombobulated and out of sync the entire game because of Alford's decision to start role players Foster and McBride. All of the points from the bench came from Tyler Rolison (five), K.J. Hymes (four) and Xavier DuSell (three) with none of them coming in the final 10 minutes of the game.
KEY HIDDEN FACTOR
The Wolf Pack missed 16 shots in the paint against the Cowboys. Nick Davidson was the biggest culprit, going just 1-of-7 on either layups or shots in the paint on his way to a 4-of-14 performance overall from the floor. Davidson, who also had a game-high six turnovers, missed back-to-back shots in the paint with the Pack trailing 54-52 with just under seven minutes to play and missed again in the paint with the Pack down 61-59 with 3:11 left. He also pulled down an offensive rebound and missed the layup with 13:16 to go in the second half.
KEY PACK NEMESES
The difference in the game might have been Wyoming reserves Touko Tainamo, Dontaie Allen and Scottie Ebube. The three combined to score 28 points over their 64 minutes off the bench on 8-of-13 shooting, 5-of-6 on threes and 7-of-8 from the line. Allen had a huge 3-pointer for a 58-56 lead with five minutes to play and also drained one for a 44-40 lead midway through the second half. Tainamo hit threes for leads of 49-46 (9:30 left) and 54-52 (7:19 left).
KEY COWBOY
Obi Agbim, a 6-foot-3 senior transfer who spent his first four college seasons at Fort Lewis College, Northeastern Junior College and Metro State, filled his role as team leader admirably on Saturday. Agbim, who has scored 20 or more points five times this year, finished with 18 against the Pack on efficient 7-of-12 shooting (4-of-7 on threes) without getting to the line once. He also had four assists and two steals.
KEY NEVADA STAT
The Wolf Pack defense had 16 blocks (seven) and steals (nine) combined against Wyoming. It is the second most blocks and steals combined the Pack has had in a game this year behind 17 (eight blocks, nine steals) it had in a 73-71 loss to Vanderbilt on Nov. 21. Justin McBride led the Pack against Wyoming with three blocks while Kobe Sanders led with three steals. Wyoming, by comparison, had just four steals and no blocks. The 6-8 McBride, a transfer from Oklahoma State, was making his first start of his two-year career. He now has eight blocks this year after getting just three in 24 games (roughly seven minutes a game) last year at Oklahoma State.
KEY PACK CONCERN
The Wolf Pack is now 0-2 in the Mountain West for the first time since 2012-13. That team finished 12-19 overall and 3-13 in the Mountain West for coach David Carter. So, yes, there should be a definite and obvious sense of urgency in the program right now. But there is no real reason for panic. If there are some serious concerns right now they all should belong to the offense. The Pack has scored 64 or fewer points in each of its last four losses. The defense still has not allowed more than 78 points in any game this year. The Pack team we saw on Saturday, with Foster and McBride starting, DuSell getting just 12 minutes and Love not stepping on the floor, will struggle offensively on most nights against anybody. Whether Alford had no choice to make those lineup changes or was just simply trying to make a point, well, point well taken. We don't need to see that again.
UP NEXT
The Wolf Pack (8-5, 0-2) will host the Utah State Aggies (12-1, 2-0) on Tuesday at Lawlor Events Center. Utah State will be coming off a 67-66 win over San Diego State on Saturday in San Diego. Utah State has won six of the last nine games in the rivalry against Nevada, though the Wolf Pack beat the Aggies in Logan, Utah (77-63) last season.