DALLAS - When SMU was making its second-half comeback on Nevada Saturday night, you had to wonder if any Nevada players thought back to last year when Nevada blew a 10-point lead and lost in overtime to the Mustangs.
"There was a lot of thought about it during shoot around," center Kevinn Pinkney said after the Pack closed out their 73-66 win. "We were joking about it."
"It passed (through my mind) at the beginning of the game," said Fazekas. "Before the game I thought about it a lot."
Both insist they weren't thinking about it when SMU made its late run. The two co-captains were key reasons why Nevada didn't fold its tent this time around. They were stout when it was crunch time.
Fazekas' basket with three minutes left gave Nevada a 65-58 lead, and Pinkney's two free throws made it a 10-point game, 73-63, with 26 seconds left.
Fazekas scored 13 in the first half to enable Nevada to build a 10-point halftime lead. Pinkney had six points and seven rebounds in the second half, plus he did a nice job on SMU's Eric Castro, who was held to 13 points. Castro only scored seven points when Pinkney defended him.
Nevada opened the game with Fazekas on Castro, but Castro was able to muscle Fazekas a little bit on the low block.
QUICK TURNAROUND
This could be a stressful next few days for Nevada depending on what the weather does.
Nevada is scheduled to fly out this morning from Dallas, but there is a good chance the Reno airport could be closed at some point because of all the snow. That would mean that Nevada could miss a day of practice or have to alter its schedule a bit. Fortunately, Nevada is still on Christmas break.
"I don't think it will affect us much," Fox said. "The kids are probably hoping that we can't land tomorrow so they get a day off."
Not exactly what you want when you have powerful UTEP coming to town on Wednesday.
CHEERING SECTION
Nevada had a large contingent of rooters Saturday at Moody Arena, including Cary Groth, Nevada's athletic director, and Chris Exline, Nevada's faculty rep. They, along with Sandra Niedergall and Kim Dandros of the compliance staff, were in Dallas to attend the NCAA Convention that finished yesterday.
There were also about 60 people on hand to watch Fazekas, most of them students in his aunt's class. She teaches elementary school in the Dallas area. Many of the kids came with their faces painted blue and silver.
Another large group came to watch Seth Taylor, who played at Colleyville Heritage High School in Grapevine, which is part of the Dallas Metroplex. Taylor threw down a three-pointer, drawing a huge cheer from his family and friends.
And of course there was Ramon Sessions' mom, Ann, who has watched the Wolf Pack win three times without a loss on the road this year. She is turning out to be the team's good-luck charm.
FAST START
The Wolf Pack's 11-3 start is the best since 1981-82 when Nevada opened 12-3 under former coach Sonny Allen, who also coached at SMU from 1975-80 before taking the Nevada job.
Nevada started 9-4 a year ago.
GAME CHANGE
Nevada's game against UTEP originally scheduled for Thursday, has been moved to Wednesday night. The game will be shown on ESPN2 at 7:05 p.m.
BY THE NUMBERS
Pinkney, who scored 15 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, collected his fifth double-double of the season and 10th of his career. He now has six games where he has garnered 10 or more rebounds. He has gone over the 10-rebound mark 13 times in his career. ... Fazekas reached double digits for the 14th straight game this year, and he has 37 games (out of 48) where he's scored in double digits. He has also scored 20 or more points eight times this season and 14 times in his career.
Darrell Moody can be reached at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or by calling 881-1281.
