Charlo up and down in his start

DAVIS, Calif. - After an impressive 17 points in 10 minutes against Eastern Illinois, junior Mo Charlo made his first start of the year , finishing with eight points, three turnovers and two assists in the Wolf Pack's 60-51 victory over UC Davis Wednesday night.

Charlo started in place of freshman David Ellis, who had started the past two games in place of Jermaine Washington.

"I felt like our big lineup couldn't guard them man to man," first-year head coach Mark Fox said, explaining the move. "When we were big and played zone, we couldn't match up."

Charlo had an off and on outing. He got some pretty good looks offensively, but again didn't knock down enough of them (3 for 8).

"He needs to learn how to play on the road," Fox said. "He didn't have a very good first half."

Charlo had two points in six minutes, but had three buckets in the first seven-plus minutes of the second half. His last hoop gave Nevada a 35-29 lead.

A BIG MOVE

UC Davis is in the second year of a transition to Division I. The Aggies, who consider themselves a Division I independent, will be an official member of the Big West Conference starting in 2007-08. This year the Aggies are playing almost every Big West team (17 games total), and starting next year they will be in the rotation next year, playing each team twice.

NO SCHOOL HELPS

The win was Nevada's third straight since classes ended last week, and sophomore Nick Fazekas admits it's much less stressful when school is out.

"You don't have to worry about going to class each day," he said. "You get to go home and relax. You just worry about basketball and that's it."

Fazekas started playing much better in December and January when he was out of classes. Obviously he hopes to do just as well in the coming weeks as the Western Athletic Conference season gets under way.

DAVIS LOSES MARENTEZ

Point guard Rommel Marentez, the Aggies' leading scorer missed the game with a sore knee suffered against Dartmouth.

He scored 15 in a 72-62 loss to Stanford and he scored 22 in a double-overtime win over Dartmouth. He was averaging 16 points a game through the Aggies' nine games.

Robert Ehsan started in place of Marentez and scored 10 points and handed out one assist.

HOMECOMING FOR TAYLOR

Dedrique Taylor, who was hired as an assistant when Trent Johnson took the job at Stanford, played two years for coach Bob Williams and was also an assistant under Williams.

Taylor helped lead the Aggies to a 43-16 record in his two years at Davis.

Contact Darrell Moody at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1281.