Hawai’i at Nevada
January 22, 2009
Game Notes:
- With the 74-63 win over Hawai’i on Thursday night at Lawlor Events Center, Nevada improved its record to 12-7 overall on the season and 5-1 in WAC play. The team has won a season-long five consecutive games (all in league play) and won for the 23rd time in 25 WAC regular-season home games.
- Nevada also won for the 45th time in its last 53 contests at Lawlor Events Center and has turned in an 81-13 home record since the start of the 2003-04 season.
- With the victory, fifth-year head coach Mark Fox notched his 114th career win, tying Sonny Allen for third on Nevada’s all-time wins list. Fox is now 114-37 in his five seasons at Nevada, while Allen turned in a 114-89 record in seven seasons as Nevada’s head coach from 1980-87.
- Freshman Luke Babbitt and junior Brandon Fields tied for the team lead with 19 points apiece. It marked the 10th time in 19 games that Babbitt has led the team in scoring and the fourth time this year for Fields.
- Sophomore Malik turned in 12 points and 10 rebounds for his first career double-double. It was his third game this season with 10 or more rebounds.
- Cooke also added a team-high four steals in the game.
- Nevada outrebounded its eight consecutive opponent, turning in a 35-28 advantage on the boards. The Wolf Pack is now 9-3 on the year when outrebounding its opponent.
- Fields tied his season high with four assists, while junior Armon Johnson also turned in four assists for the Wolf Pack.
- Freshman Dario Hunt blocked a pair of shots in the victory, the 13th time in 19 games this season that he has blocked more than one shot. With 36 blocks on the year (1.89 per game), he needs just eight blocks to tie the freshman record of 44 set by Nick Fazekas in 2003-04.
- Nevada returns to action on Thursday, Jan. 29, traveling to Logan, Utah, to take on league-leading Utah State. That game will tip off at 6:05 p.m. Pacific Time. It will be televised locally by KAME-TV 21 and Comcast SportsNet California 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 game:
“I thought we played well as a team. We didn’t defend as well in the second half.”
On Hawai’i’s press:
“It caught us off-guard when they pressed us. They have good quickness and are long. It took us a long time to figure it out.”
Junior Ray Kraemer
On the game:
“We played a good first half. In the second half, we fell off a little bit. Hawai’i's a good team and we got it back at the end.”
On the team’s five-game winning streak:
“We’re playing well together right now. We need to go on the road and win our road games.”
On his effort:
“I do what I can to help us win.”
Freshman Luke Babbitt
On seeing Hawai’i cut into Nevada’s lead:
“It was a lack of focus really. We need to learn to put teams away in the second half and play better.”
On outrebounding another team:
“That was our focus tonight as it is every night. We were able to do well on the glass tonight.”
On the progress of the team:
“I think we’re still getting better. We have a lot of room to grow. We haven’t come close to playing as well as we can play as a team yet. We’re just going to keep getting better.”
Head Coach Mark Fox
On the game:
“I thought we started the game and played well. I certainly wasn’t pleased with how we played in the second half, but we reached our objective in the end.”
On the second half:
“We made some mental errors. Give Hawai’i credit for making some plays... Hawai’i got into the bonus so early in the second half, we had to go to a zone and never got into our rhythm.”
On his team:
“We just have so much room to grow. Our best basketball is in front of us. When we play together and do the things they can do, we can have success. We’re starting to see that.”
On what Nevada can take from the game:
“We can learn a lot from this game. Hawai’i has competitive kids. We knew they would make a run and they did.”
On Hawai’i’s press:
“We didn’t respond to the press. I was disappointed with how we handled it, especially with our experienced backcourt. As Brandon said, it caught us off-guard but eventually we settled down.”
“They’re long, a very long team. Some passes you can make against a smaller team, you can’t against a long Hawai’i team.”
On the second half:
“I wasn’t pleased with our second half. You’ve got to give Hawai’i credit for making some plays. They made a couple of threes that were guarded. We weren’t a thing of beauty in the second half.”
Hawai`i Quotes
Hawai`i Head Coach Bob Nash
On the second half:
“I thought tonight we got into a situation where we need to get some points into the board and then speed Nevada up. They got too confident in their offense so we tried to speed them up.”
On the first half:
“I don’t think it was the defense. I think it was our inability to take care of the basketball. We tried to force too many things and give them run outs. A good team like Nevada you can’t turn the ball over trying to make passes. We may have been a little fatigued from the altitude or whatever in the first part of the game.”
On Hawai`i guard Roderick Flemings:
“I thought he played hard. We got the ball down to the post. He’s our guy, we try to ride him as much as possible. Tonight he bumped a little bit and it got him to the free throw line.”
