San Jose State at Nevada
WAC Tournament Quarterfinals
March 12, 2009
Game Notes:
- With the 78-69 victory over San Jose State on Thursday night in the WAC Tournament quarterfinals, Nevada improved its record to 20-11 overall. The Wolf Pack has now won its last four games and seven of its last eight.
- With the victory, Nevada has now turned in its sixth consecutive season with at least 20 wins and the fifth for fifth-year head coach Mark Fox, who is the only Wolf Pack mentor to lead more than one team to at least 20 victories.
- The Wolf Pack also improved to 12-6 in WAC Tournament play (6-3 under Mark Fox) and has advanced to the semifinals of the tournament for the seventh time in its nine years as a member of the WAC.
- Second-seeded Nevada will take on seventh-seeded Louisiana Tech at 9 p.m. Friday night in the WAC Tournament semifinals. ESPN2 will televise the game, while 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 won for the 29th time in its last 34 home games against WAC opponents, including games in the 2006 WAC Tournament and tonight’s quarterfinals win. The team is now 85-15 at home since the start of the 2003-04 season (12-6 this year).
- Freshman Luke Babbitt led the team with a game- and career-high 30 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the field and 12-of-13 shooting from the free throw line. It marked the 14th time this year that the 2009 WAC Freshman of the Year has led the team in scoring this season.
- Sophomore Malik Cooke added 16 points, just one shy of his career high, while sophomore Armon Johnson scored 14 points.
- Babbitt and Cooke each pulled down six rebounds to lead the Wolf Pack.
- Nevada shot 52.0 percent from the field (26-50) tonight, its sixth 50-percent effort of the season, and third in the last four games. In those four contests, the Wolf Pack has shot 48.8 percent from the field (106-217) and averaged 80.0 points per game.
Nevada Head Coach Mark Fox on Louisiana Tech:
“Louisiana Tech is a terrific team and is playing well to end the season. We are going to have to play a great game tomorrow night.”
Nevada Quotes
Nevada Head Coach Mark Fox
On the game:
“It was a very hard fought game. Give credit to San Jose for making it a good game. It wasn’t a pretty game, but we did what we needed to do and we won the ball game.”
On Adrian Oliver:
“Malik Cooke did a nice job defending him. We didn’t shut him down like last game, but I didn’t anticipate that we would.”
On pressure of the game:
“I told our players that we felt the pressure of hosting the tournament. We’re young and we felt that pressure of playing at home and being the host team. I didn’t coach very well, I don’t think, and our players bailed me out.”
On Nevada sophomore forward Malik Cooke:
“I had a feeling he was going to play well. I think he was going to play well all week. He’s really matured and playing like an upper classman.”
On the difference between tonight’s game and the last game versus San Jose:
“(San Jose State sophomore guard) Adrian Oliver played a better game tonight. (San Jose State junior forward) CJ Webster is so big and strong and he got us in foul trouble. As a team, they defended better.”
Nevada freshman forward Luke Babbitt
On career high tonight:
“My teammates found me when I was open and I was able to knock down some shots. It was a hard fought game and I’m just happy we won.”
On playing in his first tournament game:
“I felt good. Coach rested us a lot for the past couple of weeks in preparation for this tournament. I got a little frustrated in the first half but I settled down in the second half. That’s something I need to work on though. Like coach and (Nevada senior guard) Lyndale (Burleson) said, we felt the pressure of playing of hosting the tournament. It was good to get the first win and now move on.”
On why he was able to get open so much:
“It was just one of those nights. They went into the zone and I was able to find some open spots within the zone. My teammates helped a lot but we didn’t play perfect. We can improve on a lot and hopefully keep improving.”
Nevada senior guard Lyndale Burleson
On advancing to the next game:
“I’m excited about advancing. Like coach said, we came out and played a little too hard as we felt the pressure.”
On jitters of the first game of the tournament:
“We felt the pressure a little bit, but in the second half we started to settle down and played a little better.”
On team’s defense:
“We wanted to come out and play hard. They have a good guard team, (San Jose State sophomore guard Adrian) Oliver and (sophomore guard Justin) Graham, and we just wanted to make it difficult for them.”
San Jose State Quotes
San Jose State Head Coach George Nessman
On the game:
“It was a difficult situation. We believed that we can win. Nevada was just better than us tonight. I thought the game was much better than last Thursday.”
On C.J. Webster’s foul trouble:
“I thought the biggest factor for us was the early foul trouble with C.J. They had a hard time guarding C.J. and he had to sit on the bench for an awful lot of minutes because of fouls. I think if we had C.J. more minutes, we would have made it more competitive.”
On playing Nevada twice in two weeks:
“To be honest, I haven’t given any thought. When you get to the WAC Tournament draw, you play the team in front of you. They’ve kick out butts twice. I’m sure they were pretty confident coming into the game.”
San Jose State junior forward C.J. Webster
On getting fouled out:
“It was very frustrating. You want to be out there and help your team.”
On Nevada freshman guard Luke Babbitt:
“It’s tough dealing with him. I tried to force him to go right. He takes advantage of the smaller guys and any guy not as strong as him. I tried being as physical as possible with him.”
San Jose State sophomore guard Adrian Oliver
On the game:
“They were very confident coming in. They beat us twice in a row. We felt we can win. There’s been a run at the end. We couldn’t take care of the ball when we needed to. If we don’t do it, they’ll punish you for it.”
