WAC honors Pack's Fazekas again

For the second time this season, Nevada's Nick Fazekas has been named Western Athletic Conference men's Player of the Week.

Fazekas, Nevada's 6-foot-11 sophomore forward, averaged 20.5 points and 12.5 rebounds in two big road wins last week at Louisiana Tech and SMU. He shot 54.5 percent from the field and 81 percent from the line.

Fazekas won the award over Boise State forward Seth Robinson, Fresno State swingman Dreike Bouldin, Louisiana Tech's Wayne Powell, Rice forward Michael Harris, SMU center Eric Castro and UTEP forward Omar Thomas.

On Thursday against Louisiana Tech, Fazekas scored 21 points and grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds to lead the Wolf Pack to a 64-56 win. Fourteen of those points came in the second half, including a quick 11 in a four-minute span that helped Nevada build a 13-point lead.

Against SMU, Fazekas scored 20 points and pulled down seven rebounds. His 13-point first half effort gave Nevada a 10-point lead, and he hit two critical free throws down the stretch to thwart SMU's comeback bid as the Wolf Pack won 73-66.

Nevada coach Mark Fox was happy for Fazekas, and admitted the numbers paved the way for his super sophomore to win the award.

"I don't think Nick was the best player," Fox said. "He won Player of the Week because he had the best numbers. He much better defensively than a year ago. He's a talented offensive player and he's rebounding well."

Fox felt that Kevinn Pinkney might have been more critical to the team's success last week because of his defensive work on Louisiana Tech's Paul Millsap and his strong play at both ends of the floor against SMU. Pinkney had 15 points and 13 rebounds against SMU.

The Nevada coach feels Pinkney is playing the best basketball of his career. Fox praised Pinkney's unselfishness in giving up scoring and rebounding to deal with Millsap.

Quite simply, Pinkney has done whatever the team needs and sacrificed his own stats in the process. That kind of attitude is why he's one of Nevada's co-captains this year.

Darrell Moody can be reached at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com or by calling 881-1281