BY DARRELL MOODY
Nevada Appeal News Service
FRESNO - Make no mistake about it, the University of Nevada men's basketball team loves to run with the basketball.
However, the Wolf Pack showed they can execute and be patient in a half-court situation, too.
With the game slowed down to a crawl, Nevada went on a 22-8 run during a nine-minute stretch of the second half en route to a 64-55 Western Athletic Conference win over Fresno State before a crowd of 14, 098 at the Save Mart Center Saturday night.
The win gives the Wolf Pack (18-8, 11-5) some much-needed momentum heading into their final WAC games of the year against Hawaii (Thursday) and San Jose State (Saturday). Both games are at home where Nevada is a perfect 13-0.
"I thought it was a possession-by-possession game," Nevada coach Trent Johnson said. "I really thought the tempo favored Fresno State. The kids did a good job producing offensively. We defended with a sense of urgency.
"I know they were missing three players (disciplinary reasons), but they have some guys that can play in Marcus West and Shantay Legans. Shantay has played a lot of basketball in the last five years, and he understands tempo and he gets the ball to the right person."
Despite all that experience, he couldn't match the experience, poise and grit that Nevada showed in the second half, especially down the stretch when Fresno State made a late run.
Five points by West and a three by Legans gave the Bulldogs a 35-31 lead with 15:51 left in the game. The Bulldogs would lead only once the rest of the game, falling victim to the aforementioned 22-8 run by the Wolf Pack, and five different players had a hand in the surge. When the smoke cleared, Nevada owned a 55-43 lead.
Sean Paul, who finished with six points and eight rebounds, scored all of his points in that nine-minute span. Kirk Snyder (17 points) also scored six in that span, and Todd Okeson (11 points) contributed five points.
"We were having a whole lot of fun out there, and you could feel it on the court," Paul said. "If you seriously look at it, we were doing a good job as a team. We moved the ball and everybody was contributing."
"Kirk (Snyder) started making better decisions," Johnson said. "Gary Hill-Thomas said it best when he was on the bench. He said that we were working too hard to make bad decisions. We settled down, and we were in a late-clock situation by passing up the first and second shots, and getting the clock down to 15 seconds."
Fresno State cut the lead down to seven, 56-49, but would get no closer. Nevada made only three of eight foul shots down the stretch, as the Bulldogs started fouling with about two minutes left in the game.
It was a strange game to say the least.
Fresno State started off fast, hitting six of its first eight shots en route to a 14-8 lead, as West threw in seven quick points. The Bulldogs went cold, however, hitting four of their last 19 shots to end the half.
The Wolf Pack didn't shoot well in the first half - period. Nevada connected on nine of 31 from the floor. The odd thing was that Nevada still managed a 29-24 lead thanks to a 7-2 surge in the final four minutes which snapped a 22-all tie.
Snyder started the surge with a three-pointer with 3:50 left, and after Mustafa Al-Sayyad (16 points) scored on a hook to make it 25-24, Kemp downed a three-ball to make it 28-24. Snyder knocked down a free throw with 2.9 left in the half to make it 29-24.
"We were getting good shots that weren't going down," Johnson said. "There have been nights where the ball just won't go down, and the last three have been like that."
"They like to make you look like that," Okeson said. "They don't like to get it and go. Fifty or 60 points gives them their best chance to win. It shows that we executed well."
And, Okeson hopes that trend continues for a few more games.
Notes: Nevada is 18-0 when leading at halftime ... After a 29 percent start, Nevada shot 46 percent in the second half . The Wolf Pack shot just 30.8 for the game, its lowest mark of the season.
