No doubting Thomas in Nevada's win

By DARRELL MOODY

Nevada Appeal News Service

RENO - The streak is alive - barely.

Senior Garry Hill-Thomas tipped in a missed shot a split second before the buzzer to give the University of Nevada a thrilling 60-58 nonconference win over Toledo Saturday night in the ESPN Bracket Buster basketball game at Lawlor Events Center.

The win gives Nevada a 17-8 overall record heading into Saturday's match-up on the road against Fresno State. Toledo, which played the entire second half without leading scorer Keith Triplett, dropped to 16-8.

Toledo's Sammy Villegas tied the game at 58 with 7.5 seconds left on an off-balance 23-footer. Instead of calling timeout, Nevada rushed the ball upcourt and Todd Okeson lofted up a 15-footer from the right side. The ball bounced off the rim, and Hill-Thomas tipped it in to boost Nevada's home winning streak to 13 straight.

The game officials huddled around the courtside television set, and briefly watched a replay before allowing the basket to stand.

"I just got up there and hit it with my left hand, and it gave me a friendly roll," said Hill-Thomas, who recalled hitting a game-winning shot against Galena in Reno when he was a senior at Bishop O' Dowd High in Oakland, Calif.

"Coach (Johnson) told us that if they score to get the ball upcourt as quick as we could and see what happens," Okeson said. "I was just trying to get it to the rim. I don't know if it hit the rim or not."

Nevada coach Trent Johnson said the reason why he didn't take a time out was because he didn't want to give Toledo a chance to set up defensively.

"I was worried about a steal or a five-second call," Johnson said. "I thought we'd be able to get a good luck if we were scrambling. I'm not sure Todd got a good look.

"We were fortunate. I knew we had a fight on our hands coming in. They're a good team. They did a good job of running people at Kirk (Snyder) and they played Todd tough. I give a lot of credit to them."

Nevada didn't get many great looks, especially in the second half because of Toledo's stifling match-up zone defense, which held the Wolf Pack to 32 percent shooting (8 for 25) and only 24 second-half points. The 60-point effort was Nevada's lowest at home this year, and second-lowest of the season.

What makes Toledo's job amazing is that the Rockets rarely, if ever, play a zone defense. They held Snyder to 10 points on 3-for-13 shooting, and Nick Fazekas was held to just six points, getting up just six shots.

Nevada's athleticism is what forced Toledo coach Stan Joplin to play a zone defense.

"There is nobody in our league (Mid-American Conference) that is as tall and athletic as they are," said Joplin, who admitted he was more concerned about Snyder, Okeson and Fazekas after exchanging films with the Wolf Pack.

That meant less attention was paid to Hill-Thomas, and he responded with his best effort of the season, hitting 8 of 13 field-goal attempts from the floor en route to a season-high 18 points.

"You've got to pick your poison," Joplin said. "We knew he liked to attack the basket. We wanted to stay in front of him the best we could."

Hill, who sparked the Wolf Pack to a 36-26 first-half lead with 10 points, made some huge baskets down the stretch.

He gave Nevada a 52-46 lead with 5:50 left on a jump shot from the right baseline. Sandwiched around two Kevinn Pinkney free throws (13 points, 12 rebounds) was a three-pointer by Justin Ingram (11 points), slicing the lead to 54-50 with 4:24 remaining in the game.

Hill came up big again when he stole the ball from Keonta Howell, dribbled the length of the court and let loose with a ferocious dunk to make it 56-50 with 2:31 left.

Toledo cut the lead to 56-55 with 35.5 left on a bucket by Villegas and a trey by Ingram.

Okeson, who finished with just seven points, knocked down two foul shots for a 58-55 lead with 22.7 left, setting the stage for an exciting finish and Hill-Thomas' heroics.

"He hasn't hit shots like that all year," Okeson said. "That's something I knew he could do all year. He showed he could shoot against Louisiana Tech. He shot the ball well tonight."

Notes: The Pack was a disappointing 14 of 27 from the foul line, and the usually reliable Fazekas was 0 for 4 and Snyder was 3 for 7 ... Toledo outrebounded Nevada 43-36 thanks to an eight-rebound effort by Villegas... This was the closest win at home since the Pack beat St. Mary's 67-65 back on Dec. 16 in the 2000-2001 season.