Michael McGarvey
A look at the key players, plays and moments of the Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball team's 74-60 victory over the Air Force Falcons at Colorado Springs, Colo., Tuesday night:
KEY WOLF PACK RUN
The Wolf Pack had a 10-0 run early in the first half to help wipe out yet another slow start (Air Force led 17-8 six minutes into the game). But the run that finally put the game away was an 11-2 spurt that gave the Pack a 68-54 lead with 3:27 to play. An offensive rebound and tip-in by Nick Davidson started the run with 6:37 to play and Davidson then drained a 3-pointer 34 seconds later for a 62-52 lead. Kobe Sanders hit a jumper and a 3-pointer 41 seconds apart to close out the run.
KEY AIR FORCE RUN
Air Force simply couldn't protect the ball (the Falcons had 16 turnovers) long enough to put together any significant runs. The Falcons, though, did go on a 9-2 run to take a 17-8 lead out of the gate. Air Force's shooters came out hot, making their first three 3-pointers and four of their first five shots in the game's first six minutes (they would miss five of their last six threes in the first half). The only other stretch resembling an Air Force run was late in the first half when it scored seven unanswered points to tie the game at 28-28.
KEY FACTOR
Air Force turned the ball over 16 times, leading to a healthy 26-8 edge in points off turnovers for the Pack. Air Force had 10 turnovers in the first half, handing Nevada a 30-28 edge at the break. The Falcons turned the ball over five times in the final 8:27 of the first half, leading to 11 Pack points. Air Force's 16 turnovers are the second-most by a Pack opponent this year (Wyoming had 19 on Dec. 28). The Wolf Pack has had a 43-16 edge in points off turnovers over its last two games combined (wins over UNLV and Air Force). Opponents had a 71-39 edge in points off turnovers in the four previous Pack games (a win over San Jose State followed by losses to Utah State, San Diego State and Boise State).
KEY PACK PLAYER
Nick Davidson came out flat and looking a bit disinterested and lost in the first half. The 6-9 forward had just two points on 1-of-3 shooting with just one rebound in the first half as the Pack led 30-28 at the intermission. Alford even sat Davidson down for the final 4:35 of the opening half. That all changed in the second half. Davidson simply wore out the Air Force defense in the second half, scoring 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting with four rebounds. He had 16 points in the final 9:13, turning a slim 49-44 lead into a comfortable 74-60 victory. He scored in various ways in the second half, going 7-of-11 from the line and 2-of-4 on threes to go along with three layups and a dunk to finish with 25 points, his most since the season opener (26 against Sam Houston).
KEY PACK SIDEKICK
Kobe Sanders turned in his most productive game in quite some time, scoring 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting with three rebounds, three assists and three steals. It was his most efficient game since he scored 27 points, also on 7-of-10 shooting, in a win over Oklahoma State on Nov. 24. Sanders had 11 points in the first half and 10 in the second half against Air Force. He made his final five shots in the first half.
KEY ALFORD MOVE
The Wolf Pack bench produced just nine points over 69 minutes combined by five players. But it was the bench that coach Steve Alford went to early in the game in an effort to jump start a flat and sluggish Wolf Pack team. The Pack found itself down 14-6 just four-and-a-half minutes into the game, prompting Alford to insert Tyler Rolison, Justin McBride and K.J. Hymes into the game for starters Brandon Love, Kobe Sanders and Nick Davidson. The move worked right away as McBride connected on two jumpers 69 seconds apart as the Pack offense began to wake up. Alford continued to make changes and when the dust cleared the Pack had an 18-17 lead with 7:35 left in the half. Rolison, McBride, Hymes and Bailey didn't do a lot of scoring but the four combined to play just over 35 minutes in the first half, helping to turn the 14-6 deficit into a 30-28 lead by halftime.
KEY HIDDEN PACK PLAYER
Xavier DuSell finished with 11 points in his 23 minutes, connecting on 3-of-6 3-pointers. DuSell had a three for a 25-21 lead late in the first half and drained two more in the first three minutes of the second half for a 40-33 lead. DuSell, who has started the last three games after coming off the bench for eight games in a row, has scored 33 points on 12-of-27 shooting over his last four games. He is 16-of-35 on threes over his last seven games.
KEY TURNING POINT
The Wolf Pack missed its first seven 3-point shots against Air Force. The seventh miss came with the Pack trailing 17-14 with 8:33 left in the first half. Daniel Foster, who is just 4-of-17 on threes this season, missed two of the first seven. Xavier DuSell, though, broke the dry spell with a 3-pointer with 4:11 left in the first half, giving the Pack a 25-21 lead. The Wolf Pack's aim from beyond the arc improved considerably after its first seven misses. Nevada made seven of its last 11 threes, 5-of-8 in the second half.
KEY LINGERING CONCERN
Tre Coleman, who has been nursing a leg injury, did not play at all at Air Force. It is the first game Coleman has missed in his five-year Pack career. The 6-7 forward had played in all 146 games since joining the Wolf Pack for the 2020-21 season. Coleman played just seven minutes at Boise State on Jan. 29 and 15 against UNLV on Feb. 1 in the previous two games before Tuesday night. He hasn't scored a single point over his last three appearances over 52 minutes combined (0-for-10 from the floor).
KEY HISTORICAL NOTE
The Wolf Pack is now 21-3 against Air Force in a rivalry that began on Jan. 9, 2013. Nevada has won 17 of the last 18 games. Air Force, though, won the first game of the rivalry, 78-65, at Colorado Springs as 6-6, 215-pound senior forward Mike Fitzgerald scored a career-high 30 points. Fitzgerald, who played four seasons at Air Force, only scored as many as 20 points in a game two other times in his 117-game career. He had 22 against UNLV just three days after scoring 30 against Nevada and also had 25 against Hawaii on March 21, 2013, in the College Insider.com Tournament (CIT) in the second-to-last game of his career.
UP NEXT
Nevada (13-10, 5-7) will get six days off before returning to the court on Monday (Feb. 10) at Lawlor Events Center against Fresno State. Fresno State (5-18, 1-11) has now lost five games in a row and 11 of its last 12 after a 94-91 double-overtime loss at home to San Jose State on Tuesday. Fresno State's lone victory since Dec. 14 was 74-65 over Air Force on Jan. 17.