Playing the same team three times in one season is always hard. Playing them back-to-back is even harder. Yet, Nevada made it look easy in its Mountain West Tournament game against Air Force, winning 80-45.
The Wolf Pack faced the Falcons last week in Reno for the final game of the regular season. Coming into the tournament as the fifth seed, Nevada will take a boatload of confidence into the rest of the tournament with this dominating win to start 1-0.
Scoring Summary
1st Half
Air Force 10 – Nevada 39
2nd Half
Air Force 39 – Nevada 41
Final: Air Force 45, Nevada 80
First Half
Kaleb Lowery started things right for the Pack with a layup for an early 2-0 lead. It was then Vaughn Weems’ turn, hitting a corner three for a 5-0 start. Tayshawn Comer joined the fun with a three of his own and it was 10-0 Nevada after three minutes.
Weems added another three, leading to a timeout called by Air Force with 16 minutes left, down 13-0. The Falcons scored their first points of the game on a layup by Kam Sanders at the 14-minute mark.
Nevada hit the 20-point mark with just over 10 minutes left while keeping Air Force scoreless for over eight minutes. The Wolf Pack included a 16-0 run during that span as well.
The Wolf Pack continued to clip the Falcons’ wings, ending the half shooting 54 percent from the field compared to Air Force’s 17 percent. Nevada turned in a 21-2 run over nearly 10 minutes through the first half. The Falcons finally cracked into double-digit scoring with just over a minute left of the half.
“I thought the defense was beyond outstanding,” head coach Steve Alford said. “They listened to the scouting report well, we made some minor adjustments and they just executed well.”
The 10-point first half by Air Force was a record breaker as the fewest points scored in the first half in a Mountain West Tournament game.
Second Half
Comer, Elijah Price and Corey Camper Jr. opened the first three minutes with nine points, five of them coming from the free-throw line. Camper’s last three free throws gave Nevada 50 points.
Air Force reached the free-throw line for the first time at the 16:21 mark, making both to cut the Falcons’ deficit down to 50-14. The Falcons reached the 20-point mark from free throws, cutting the score to 55-21 with 12 minutes to go.
There really wasn’t anything Air Force could do to stay competitive. The Falcons limited the Pack’s scoring from beyond the arc, with Nevada shooting 25 percent from that spot. In total, 12 different Nevada players scored in this one while shooting 46 percent from the field.
“Definitely a positive impact when everyone gets involved,” Price said of a majority of the team scoring. “It’s a team game, so when we move the ball and share it at a high level and everybody eats, it’s fun to play.”
Nevada also won the rebound battle 32-22 while picking up 11 steals and six blocks. The Pack’s lead scorer was Camper with 11 points on 3-7 shooting.
Air Force made its first three of the night after going 0-16 from deep. The three came from Sanders with just over six minutes left. Sanders finished with 12 points on 4-14 shooting. Air Force shot 28 percent from deep and nine percent from the field.
What’s Next
Nevada will face the No. 4 seed GCU tomorrow, March 12, for a quarterfinal matchup. Nevada only faced GCU once this season, winning 66-60 in overtime at Lawlor.
Tip-off is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. PST at the Thomas & Mack.