Game Notes:
- With the 78-75 loss to Louisiana Tech on Thursday night, Nevada fell to 13-9 overall on the season and 6-3 in WAC play. It marked just Nevada’ s third WAC home loss in its last 26 games.
- Sophomore Armon Johnson led the team with 27 points, the second-most points of his career. It was the sixth 20-point game for the sophomore this season and the seventh time this year that he has led the team in scoring.
- Freshman Luke Babbitt added 23 points, just one off his career high of 24 set on Saturday night at Idaho. He was 9-of-11 from the field, including both of his three-point attempts, and made all three of his free throw attempts.
- It marked the third time this season that Nevada has had two players score at least 20 points (at Colorado State and at New Mexico State were the other two games).
- Babbitt also led the team with six rebounds, the 13th time this year that he has paced the Wolf Pack in the category.
- Louisiana Tech shot 60 percent in the game (30-50), the season high for a Wolf Pack opponent this year. The Bulldogs shot 66.7 percent in the second half (16-24).
- Nevada outrebounded Louisiana Tech 29-26, the 11th straight opponent the Wolf Pack has outrebounded. The team is now 10-5 on the year when outrebounding its opponents.
- Freshman Dario Hunt blocked three shots in the game to take sole possession of Nevada’s freshman record for blocks in a season with 47. He broke Nick Fazekas’ record of 44 set in 2003-04. He needs just one more block to move into the top six on Nevada’s single-season list in the category.
- Nevada returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 7, playing host to New Mexico State. Saturday’s game at Lawlor Events Center will tip off at 5:05 p.m. Pacific Time and will be televised nationally by ESPN2. 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.
Nevada Quotes
Sophomore Armon Johnson
On the last possession:
“We didn’t get the shot off. Sometimes stuff happens.”
On the game:
“We got outplayed by a good team at home. That should never happen.”
Freshman Luke Babbitt
On the game:
“It’s just really disappointing. I can’t describe it. It’s just unacceptable. That should never happen at home.”
On the loss:
“We didn’t play well from the end of the first half to the end of the second half. It was a team loss.”
Head Coach Mark Fox
On the game:
“Give Louisiana Tech credit. They played very well. I thought our defense was pathetic. Give Louisiana Tech credit, but that’s unacceptable for our defense to play that way. That was the story of the game.”
On Nevada’s defense:
“We attempted to play every defense we had, and we played every one of them poorly. I could not get them to defend.”
“We didn’t defend in either half.”
On Nevada’s last possession:
“We obviously needed a three. Armon was going to drive and if he couldn’t get it off, Luke was going to trail and we had two guys in the same place.”
On the turning point of the game:
“The turning point of the game was the start of the second half. We had 4-5 fouls quickly. They were in the bonus way too early. We could not get a stop. That’s the story of the game. I’m very disappointed in that.”
On rebounding from the loss:
“We’re not going to shake this off. We’ll force ourselves to look at this tomorrow, and we’ll practice as long as we have to tomorrow.”
Louisiana Tech Quotes
Louisiana Tech Head Coach Kerry Rupp
On the game:
“It was a hard fought game. We got off to a slow start and (Nevada) got out of the gate really fast and I thought they out competed us. I didn’t care about anything, but let’s come out and compete and take it possession by possession. It’s a game where we are going to have to make stops and be able to score. I thought we did a good job making stops down the stretch. That’s a very good team. That’s a terrific win.”
On the second half:
“We made some defensive adjustments. We wanted to get away from the zone and go more man-to-man. We wanted to be more aggressive and get to the rim and get to the free throw line. I thought the kids did good making those adjustments and staying with the game plan.”
On Nevada guard Armon Johnson and forward Luke Babbitt
“They are good players. They scored over the defenders and it was a matter of trying to keep them in front of us and make them take tough shots over the top of us. They are good enough to do that at times. We wanted to make sure that we didn’t give them anything.”
