Game Notes:
- With the 71-70 win over VCU on Friday night in the ESPNU BracketBusters, Nevada improved to 16-10 overall on the season.
- The Wolf Pack also improved to 5-1 in the ESPNU BracketBusters event, including a 5-0 record at Lawlor Events Center.
- Nevada also won for the 46th time in its last 56 contests at home and is now 82-15 at Lawlor Events Center since the start of the 2003-04 season.
- Freshman Luke Babbitt and junior Brandon Fields led five Wolf Pack players in double figures for scoring with 15 points each. It marked the 12th time this year that Babbitt has led the team in scoring and the fifth time for Fields.
- With his 13 points, Babbitt moved past Pete Padgett for third on Nevada’s all-time list of freshman scorers with 420 points. Padgett turned in 416 points in his freshman year in 1972-73.
- Sophomores Armon Johnson and Malik Cooke each added 13 points and junior Joey Shaw had 11.
- Babbitt and Shaw paced the team with eight rebounds apiece.
- Nevada outrebounded VCU 34-33, the 14th time in its last 15 games that Nevada has outrebounded its opponents. The Wolf Pack outrebounded the Rams 20-13 in the second half.
- The Wolf Pack made a season-high 88.9 percent of its free throw attempts in the game (24-27), led by Shaw who was 7-of-7 at the charity stripe.
- Johnson paced the Wolf Pack with eight assists and just one turnover.
- Nevada returns to action on Thursday, Feb. 26, traveling to Fresno, Calif., to take on the Fresno State Bulldogs. That game will tip off at 7:05 p.m. Pacific Time and will be televised locally by KAME-TV 21. It can also be heard on Nevada’s radio flagship, ESPN 630 AM, and its radio affiliates throughout the state with Ryan Radtke calling the action.
Sophomore guard Armon Johnson
On the end of the game:
“I got a shot to go down. Coach ran a play for me... Luckily I got the shot to go down.”
On playing the end of the game without Coach Fox:
“Coach Fox has prepared us for moments like this. He’s making us tougher in practice every day. He knew we were tough to enough to handle it.”
On guarding VCU guard Eric Maynor:
“I was trying to get him off balance. Coach has been telling me I need to guard the toughest player at the end of the game or when Lyndale is tired.”
Junior guard Brandon Fields
On the win:
“We had to get the win for Coach Fox.”
“Coach Fox helped me in a big way at the end.”
On the crowd:
“It’s always good to play here. We really have the community behind us. We toughened up and came back with them behind us.”.”
On his 3-pointers:
“I did what I had to do and stepped up.”
Freshman forward Luke Babbitt
On the crowd:
“That was awesome. It surprised a lot of us. We’ve never heard them that loud here.”
On the win:
“It was a good team win. Who knows what would have happened. It was a win.”
On his free throws at the end:
“Joey hit the biggest free throws. He put us up by three (points) and made them take a tough 3.”
On coming from behind:
“We have a lot of confidence in ourselves. It’s a matter of playing a complete game. We’re still working on that. VCU is a good team. We’re fortunate to get a win.”
On Armon’s final shot:
“It came down to the last second. Armon was clutch. It’s great to do it at home. The fans helped us.”
Nevada Head Coach Mark Fox
“As a coach, I don’t have the privilege of using the First Amendment. I don’t have freedom of speech. I’d like to challenge it, but I can’t.”
“I plan on being the coach at Nevada for a long time, but only three people understand how this program was built: Trent Johnson, David Carter and myself. Only two of us know how the success and tradition were sustained: David Carter and myself. I think he proved tonight why he should be the next head coach here when my coach ends.”
“He’s terrific... I’m very proud of my players and my staff.”
“David’s been ready to be a head coach for a long time. Our players have great faith in him... our players were prepared for that situation.”
On the crowd:
“It was a great win. We had the energy in the crowd tonight. That is certainly a win they can enjoy.”
On what he did after being ejected:
“I watched the game in the locker room. The announcers said they hadn’t scored for nine minutes. VCU is a terrific team.”
On the play of Brandon Fields:
“He had a great second half... At the half, I charged him up to get over the hump.”
On VCU guard Eric Maynor:
“He’s a terrific player. I have a lot of respect for Eric Maynor. He made a game-winning shot against Duke. All that publicity and the negative parts of our game have not polluted him. He’s a great player, as good as we’ve seen.”
On getting a win at home:
“We hadn’t played as well at home. That has nothing to do with our fans. That’s been misrepresented. We’re starting two freshmen and two sophomores. They feel the weight of the tradition they are trying to uphold and that’s what it’s been.”
“To win a game like this with the determination and grit that this program has had means a lot. Hopefully we can take this game like we have every game and move it forward.”
VCU Quotes
VCU Head Coach Anthony Grant
On the game:
“I thought the last 16 minutes of the game, we stopped being the aggressor and they turned up their intensity. We didn’t get the rebound we needed to and things like that cost us the game.”
On the atmosphere:
“Obviously the fans got into it. We had a chance to finish it out and be the aggressor. But their intensity went up and put us back in their heads.”
On the traveling:
“We have no excuses. We got outplayed the last six to seven minutes of the ball game.”
On guard Eric Maynor and the team’s performance:
“We have to play with a passion and sense of urgency the way [Eric Maynor] has. Right now we don’t have that.”
On Nevada:
“That is a very talented team. I thought that in the end of the game [Nevada guard Armon Johnson] was going to take over. He made some spectacular plays. Off the bench they got some great production. [Nevada guard Brandon] Fields and [Nevada forward Joey] Shaw really hurt us. They came in with a lot of energy. I thought they were the difference in the game.”
