The year was 1973 when UC Davis last won a game over Nevada. Only 15 games were played during that 52-year span, but the long losing streak came to an end in Reno after the Aggies came out on top 75-71.
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It simply wasn’t a clean game for Nevada. Turnovers and getting into foul trouble hurt. It was another game that, in all honesty, shouldn’t have been as close. Nevada was a sizable favorite at home and fell flat.
“They just outplayed us,” head coach Steve Alford said after the game.
Scoring Summary:
1st Half:
UC Davis 33 – Nevada 33
2nd Half:
UC Davis 42 – Nevada 38
Final: UC Davis 75, Nevada 71
Offense
It took about three minutes for Nevada to find the basket, banking on an inside layup by Joel Armotrading. The Pack advantage of some early fouls to hit and-one shots by Elijah Price and Chuck Bailey.
Another night of some early threes for Nevada flew out, missing the first four before Peyton White hit the first deep shot around the 11-minute mark. White kept it going, making his second of the night just a few minutes later to tie it at 17.
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The offense was spread out in the first half and featured a new early leading scorer with White picking up nine points in the first 20 minutes. He finished the night with 15, going 5-6 from the field and 4-5 from three. Overall, the Pack had to catch up in shooting at the end and managed to reach 41 percent from the field in the first half. They ended the night a total of 21-53 from the field (39.6 percent) and 8-20 from beyond the arc (40 percent).
“Unfortunately, it comes down to shooting,” Alford said. “They shot 49 percent and we shot 39.”
Head coach Steve Alford has praised the depth of this Nevada roster off the bench a lot so far, and tonight showed why he’s so confident in it. 0 points came from Nevada’s bench, including a second-half surge by guard Vaughn Weems, who hadn’t been seeing much action due to an injury.
“Being on the bench and not being able to help my brothers out there really hurt a lot,” Weems said. “It just motivated me more to get back on the floor and help my guys out there in any way possible.”
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He hit his first three of the night early in the second half to give Nevada a quick six-point lead, pushing him into the double digits and ending the night with 11 points.
Just like every other home game so far, the second half was another dog fight. Nevada’s offense kept playing catch-up, taking and giving away the lead throughout. The scoring heated up for a bit around the eight-minute mark with an 8-2 run to push Nevada’s lead to four. Two free throws were made by Tayshawn Comer to cap the run, leading to another offensive drought of over four minutes.
Comer ended it himself with a much-needed three with just over a minute left of play to cut it to a two-point deficit. Price had a chance to cut it down to one on a free-throw attempt, but it didn’t fall through. Nevada shot 0 percent from the free-throw line.
Nevada had another chance to tie it in the final seconds with a three, sending flashbacks of the clutch three by Corey Camper Jr a week ago. The pass was thrown to Bailey in the corner, who threw it up for the tie but missed. A late three-pointer by White gave Nevada a glimmer of hope to cut it down by two, but it was just too little, too late.
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Price and White finished as the top scorers with 15 points each, followed by Camper Jr. (12), Weems (11) and Comer (10).
Defense
The Aggies were just as aggressive with the three-point shot to start, shooting 3-6 from beyond the arc in the first 10 minutes. They held a tight lead early on until giving it up to Nevada around the eight-minute mark. In that span, UC Davis went on a scoring drought lasting over four minutes.
Most of the Aggies’ explosive offense came from guard Nils Cooper, and for you Laker fans out there, he’s the son of legendary Michael Cooper. Nils was averaging 16 points per game coming into this one and dropped 17 points alone in the first half on 5-6 shooting and 3-3 from deep. He finished the night with 26 points, shooting 8-10 from the field.
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The game was tied for over eight minutes in the first half, but UC Davis still had a lead for over 10. Nevada was able to keep UC Davis quiet for the final three minutes of the game on a scoring drought.
It was yet another night of heading into halftime with the game tied, this time at 33. The second half led to Nevada having to instantly play catch-up. The Aggies continued to shoot over 5o percent through most of the second half and ended the night as a team shooting 22-45 from the field (48.9 percent) and 11-26 from three (42 percent).
Turnovers and fouling killed both sides, and for a Nevada team that did so well at limiting both early on, it kept this one way closer than it honestly should’ve been. There were a combined 37 turnovers and 42 fouls.
Free throws gave UC Davis a 71-68 lead with 11 seconds to go. Nevada was unable to turn some points back in, leading to more fouls and more free shots for the Aggies. Guard Connor Sevilla nailed four free throws at the end to stick the dagger in place.
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What’s Next
Nevada will look to bring a W back to Lawlor in a quick turnaround this weekend. The Pack will host UC Santa Barbara on Saturday, Nov. 22 at 2 p.m. PST.
The Gauchos are currently 3-1, coming off their first loss of the season the other night against LMU.
