Box Score
RENO, Nev. The University of Nevada women’s basketball team opened Western Athletic Conference play with a 64-57 win over La Tech Thursday night at Lawlor Events Center. Nevada’s seven-point margin of victory marked the Pack’s largest win ever over La Tech and also marked the Pack’s second straight win over La Tech in Reno.
With the win Nevada improved to 7-7 overall (1-0 WAC) while La Tech fell to 7-8 overall (0-1) WAC. The win also marked the Pack’s third straight conference opening win.
The Pack jumped out to an early lead, 14-2, on a layup by Dellena Criner with 14:09 remaining in the half. Nevada went ahead by 13, 21-8, with 9:20 remaining in the half before La Tech cut Nevada’s lead to one point, 26-25, with 4:55 left in the half. However, the Pack went on a 6-1 run to end the half, including a three pointer by Criner just before the buzzer to take a 34-26 lead at the break.
The Pack shot 34.5 percent (10-of-29) from the floor in the first half and 80.0 percent (12-of-15) from the free throw line. The Lady Techsters shot 36.7 percent (11-of-30) from the floor in the half. Criner led all scorers at the half with 10 points.
Nevada opened the second half on an 11-2 run and went ahead 47-28 on a three-point play by Cherlanda Franklin with 16:25 left in the game. La Tech cut Nevada’s lead to single digits with 47 seconds to play, 64-55, but Nevada went on to post the 64-57 victory.
“When you get into conference play it’s all for the seniors,” Nevada head coach Jane Albright said. “I couldn’t be more proud of my team.”
Franklin tied her career high with 17 points while Brandi Jones added 15 and Criner scored 12. Shavon Moore led the team with a career-high 11 rebounds while Jones added nine. As a team, the Pack tied their season high with 49 rebounds as Nevada outrebounded La Tech 49-36.
“Rebounds were the key,” Albright said. “That’s an effort stat. There were a lot of effort plays that didn’t show up on the stats tonight. Our bench did a good job of relieving us. This is how we can play and this is how we want to play. Our effort was an A-plus tonight.”
As a team the Pack recorded a season-high 17 steals including six by Criner, who was thought to be the career steals leader after Nevada’s game versus Hampton. But after a re-examination of her career steals, a miscalculation was found in her stats from her freshman year. Coming into the game Criner had recorded 228 career steals and trailed Traci Graham (237 career steals) for the all-time record. After the La Tech game, Criner has 234 career steals.
Nevada will host New Mexico State on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Lawlor Events Center.
