RENO - The real Mo Charlo showed up Saturday night against UNLV. Not the impostor that had been wearing No. 2 through the first four games.
Charlo, the 6-foot-7 transfer from Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, Ca., enjoyed his best game in a Nevada uniform. He scored a season-high 13 points, grabbed four rebounds and dished out two assists in helping the Wolf Pack to a 84-78 win over the Rebels Saturday night at Lawlor Events Center.
"I made some mistakes. I like to be perfect. I'm making mistakes and getting down on myself. I was watching tape and seeing that everybody makes mistakes," Charlo said after helping Nevada improve to 4-1 which matches the start by the 2001-02 squad coached by Trent Johnson. "The coaches told me I have to keep my head up and keep playing hard. Each game I get more and more comfortable. I came out and thought I played hard (tonight). I want to do the little things to help the team win."
What he did Saturday that's been missing the previous four games is that he was able to finish plays; knock down an outside shot, especially in the first half when Nevada built a 49-37 lead.
In the game-opening 13-2 run, Charlo capped the surge with a putback. When UNLV trimmed the lead to 19-15 with 10:21 left, Charlo drained a three-pointer from the corner to ignite a 10-0 run. A little over seven minutes later, he knocked down another three-pointer that stretched Nevada's lead to 12 points.
The two three-pointers were a welcome sight. Going into the game, Nevada was 6-for-38 from beyond the arc, and Charlo was a pathetic 1-for-10.
"I stayed after practice (this week) shooting threes," Charlo said. "I was shooting too high and I was finishing too high on my follow-through. I felt pretty good out there."
One of Charlo's two assists came at a pivotal point in the game. With the score tied at 68, he went up for a jump shot from the foul line. When a UNLV defender came at him, he dumped the ball down to a streaking Jermaine Washington, who threw down a dunk.
MORE THREES: Saturday was Nevada's best game of the season shooting three-pointers. Nevada went 6-for-15 (40 percent), which was a far cry from the 15.8 mark through the first four games.
Charlo and Nick Fazekas had two three-pointers each, and Kyle Shiloh and Seth Taylor added one each. Shiloh was 2-for-13 from beyond the arc entering the game. Taylor's three-pointer ended the first half, and he finished with seven points.
COMPLACENCY: Kevinn Pinkney, Nevada's senior co-captain, admitted that the Wolf Pack may have gotten complacent after scoring the game's first 11 points.
"They (UNLV) didn't change anything," he said. "We got complacent. We think because we have a lead that teams are going to die and go away. Lucky for us we made some shots down the stretch."
Pinkney was referring to two buckets by Fazekas that helped the Wolf Pack pull away to a 75-68 lead.
SHARP AT THE LINE: Nevada sizzled at the line, hitting 26 of 31 attempts compared to 10 of 17 by UNLV. Nevada was 8-for-9 in the final 2:24.
Darrell Moody can be reached at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com, or by calling (775) 881-1281
