Fresno State at Nevada
January 17, 2009
Game Notes:
- With the 65-60 win over Fresno State on Saturday night, Nevada improved its record to 11-7 overall on the season and 4-1 in WAC play. The team has won a season-long four consecutive games (all in league play) and won for the 22nd time in 24 WAC regular-season home games.
- Nevada also won for the 44th time in its last 52 contests at Lawlor Events Center and has turned in an 80-13 home record since the start of the 2003-04 season.
- Freshman Luke Babbitt led the team in scoring for the ninth time this season, tying his career high with 22 points.
- He also pulled down a career-best 13 rebounds for his fourth double-double of the season.
- Sophomore Malik Cooke added 11 points, the 12th time this year that he has scored in double figures.
- Freshman Dario Hunt tied his career high with nine points and added six rebounds.
- Nevada outrebounded its seventh consecutive opponent, turning in a 42-40 advantage on the boards. The Wolf Pack is now 8-3 on the year when outrebounding its opponent.
- The team also tied its season low with just one three-pointer made.
- Nevada won for the 56th time in its last 58 games when holding its opponent to 60 points or less (4-0 record this year).
- Nevada wraps up its three-game homestand on Thursday, Jan. 19, playing host to Hawai’i at Lawlor Events Center. Thursday’s game will tip off at 7:05 p.m. Pacific Time 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
Junior Brandon Fields
On the win:
“I thought the game went well. It was a tough game, a tough game where we had to grind it out at the end.”
On Nevada’s defense:
“We played tough, hard-nosed defense. We played defense well, but didn’t rebound as well.”
On the four-game winning streak:
“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves or break our wrists patting our backs. We’ve still got to stay hungry.”
Sophomore Malik Cooke
On the game:
“They’re a really good team. It was a grinder. We had to play well through the end.”
On the four-game-winning streak:
“It’s a good feeling to continue to win. We hope to keep winning.”
Freshman Luke Babbitt
On having Fresno State cut into Nevada’s lead:
“That’s the thing we need we need to do, try to bury teams when they’re down. It’s still a good win even if we let them back in a bit.”
Head Coach Mark Fox
On the game:
“I felt like we defended fairly well. We didn’t rebound as well in the second half. We played like a tired team in a lot of ways. You’ve got to give Fresno State credit. They are talented and well-coached and weren’t going to go away.”
“It was a hard-fought, slug-fest league game. Not every win is pretty. Not every win is a thing of beauty. It still counts the same in the win column. We’ll take it.”
On getting to the free throw line:
“Getting to the line has been important to our team. We were able to do that again tonight.”
On defending Sylvester Seay:
“We gave him a little more help in the second half. We made some errors in the first half and he took advantage. He’s a good player. We did an effective job on him. We were much better in the second half.”
On the progress of his team:
“We’re growing up and we need games like this... We need every experience. We showed progress tonight.”
On the play of freshman Dario Hunt:
“Dario is a good defender and a good rebounder. He’s getting better and better with experience.”
Fresno State Quotes
Fresno State head coach Steve Cleveland
On the game:
“It was a very physical game. It just seemed like we were on our heels. We’re in a position right now where we still make four or five mistakes that are controllable. We’re down four. We missed a lay-up, a post-up and a wide open three. Until we can make those shots at home or on the road, we can’t win games.”
“We fought through it. We defended. We held them to 36 percent shooting at their own gym. We did what we needed to do.”
On the loss:
“There’s no quit in them. It’s tough, especially on the kids. We keep knocking on the door and we can’t get it done.”
On the physicality of the game:
“It’s our second road trip. We’ve been on the road for five days. There’s a physical factor playing at home and they have an edge. I think there is a physical part of the game that sometimes our guys would get knocked off balance.”
