Postgame Notes:
- With the 84-61 loss to No. 1/1 North Carolina on Wednesday night, Nevada fell to 7-6 overall on the season and 5-3 at home this year. The Wolf Pack had its four-game home winning streak snapped and loss for just the fifth time in 22 games at Lawlor Events Center. The team is now 78-12 at home since the start of the 2003-04 season.
- It marked the fourth time in the last six seasons that Nevada has played the No. 1 team in the nation. The Wolf Pack will finish the 2-for-1 series with the Tar Heels with a game in Chapel Hill, N.C., in 2008-09
- Freshman Luke Babbitt led the team in scoring for the seventh time this season with a career-high 22 points. It marked the third 20-point game of the freshman’s career. He made 8-of-14 attempts from the field with one three-pointer and was 5-of-6 from the free throw line.
- Sophomore Armon Johnson added 15 points, while sophomore Malik Cooke had 13 points.
- Freshman Dario Hunt pulled down a career-high nine rebounds and led the team in rebounding for the second consecutive game.
- Hunt also blocked a career-high four blocks. He leads the team with 22 blocked shots this season and has blocked at least one shot in 10 of 13 games this year, including eight games with two or more.
- Nevada outrebounded North Carolina 39-38 and fell to 4-2 on the year when outrebounding its opponents. It marked the second game in a row that Nevada has outrebounded its opponents after besting Idaho State 37-30 last Saturday.
- The Wolf Pack made a season-low one three-pointer and shot a season-low 10.0 percent from beyond the arc (1-10).
- The 84 points by North Carolina tied the Tar Heels’ second lowest scoring output of the year and was 11.8 points below the team’s average of 95.8 points per game (second in the country).
- Nevada returns to action on Saturday night, opening Western Athletic Conference play with the Idaho Vandals (6-7). Saturday’s game at Lawlor Events Center will tip off at 7:05 p.m. and can be heard on Nevada’s radio flagship, ESPN 630 AM, and its radio affiliates throughout the state with Ryan Radtke calling the action.
Nevada Quotes
Nevada freshman forward Luke Babbitt
On the game:
“We just made too many mistakes. Against a good team, you can’t make that many mistakes.”
On looking ahead to conference play:
“It’s a new season. We’re just going to regroup and play (the games) one at a time.”
On playing a program like North Carolina:
“We were excited to play them. They are the No. 1 team in the country and have great players. We were fired up to play them. We’ll learn from it and use this game to get better.”
Nevada sophomore guard Armon Johnson
On Nevada’s start:
“The crowd was good to us today. We came out with a lot of energy, which was good for our team. In the second half, we just couldn’t put it all together.”
On North Carolina’s defense:
“They pressured us good. They had us running our offense pretty far out. They were tough all night.”
On Nevada’s shooting:
“Sometimes you have a tough night. Sometimes you just can’t get it to go down. Tonight was just one of those nights.”
Nevada head coach Mark Fox
On the game:
“We came to win. We started the game like we were going to win. We played exactly how we wanted to play in the first half. We were playing with purpose. We had the game where we wanted it and wanted to win.”
“Fatigue was a big part. One of the ways that Carolina beats you is that they have great players, great depth, great pressure. Their depth was higher quality than ours tonight.”
“We kept competing. I was pleased with that.”
“My expectation was to win. We’re not into moral victories. We knew we were playing a great team and had to play well. We just didn’t play it right long enough... It was a great test for our young team. I was pleased with a lot of things our team did. We’ll use this game to grow.”
On the crowd:
“This community has been phenomenal for this team. Our fans were terrific and our students were great... We have a young team this year and this community hasn’t batted an eye. Our fans are terrific.”
On the play of Luke Babbitt:
“Luke sprained his knee and didn’t practice yesterday. As of 10 this morning, I was sure he was going to play. I was very proud of the courage he showed to play well. He had a great ball game for his first time against a great team.”
North Carolina Quotes
North Carolina forward Tyler Hansbrough
On the game:
“I think they came out pretty strong. Obviously I didn’t think overall we played a good game. but we’re going to practice and get better rebounding the ball and get some better passing.”
On playing in different time zone and altitude:
“It may be a little of altitude or it may just be my lack of conditioning. But it really didn’t affect me.”
On Nevada forward Luke Babbitt:
“I think he shot the ball well tonight. I think he’s a good player. He’s a little hard to guard because he’s a lefty. He does some things outside that were different.”
On Nevada and whether he can sense they are a young team:
“I couldn’t sense that they are young. You can tell that they’re a good team.”
North Carolina guard Wayne Ellington
On the pressure:
“We got out in the passing lanes. We’ve got some skills to pick up the tempo a little bit. That is the style we want to play. That’s how we want to start out every game.”
On transition of games:
“I just kind of get out on the break, run the floor and get as many buckets.”
On the non-conference schedule preparing ACC play:
“We’ve had some tough games and we’ve had some tough opponents. We’re definitely looking forward to our league starting. I think we’re well prepared.”
North Carolina head coach Roy Williams:
On the game:
“I feel very fortunate to come into a tough atmosphere and win. The thing that is most pleasing is that early in the game they hit us with a pretty good three or four baskets in a row and our guys maintained their poise and kept playing and never got frustrated or flustered at any point. That maturity and that focus we had on the basketball court was really important to us. “
“I was disappointed the way we kept putting them on the free throw line in the second half. We let them shoot 20 free throws in the second half and it’s not what we wanted to do and to have them out rebound us, but you got to win some games like this that are a little uglier than you like. We have a pretty good basketball team, but we took a good shot from a good team and came out on top. I feel good about it. Wayne (Ellington) did some nice things and Tyler (Hansbrough) did some nice things, but Ty did not have the kind of game that he has been having.”
“We played a team that played hard against us and outhustled us a little bit.”
On what he said to Nevada freshman Luke Babbitt after the game:
“I told him he played a heck of a game and is going to be a heck of a player. Congratulations tonight and good luck the rest of the way. I liked him as a player in high school.”
