Box Score The University of Nevada's women's basketball team opened the 2010-11 season with an 82-71 win over Cal Poly Pomona on Friday night in front of 899 fans at Lawlor Events Center. Nevada improves to 1-0 on the season while Cal Poly drops to 0-1.
The 11-point margin of victory made the game appear closer than it actually was as Nevada took an early lead and did not relinquish it for the entirety of the game. The Wolf Pack opened the game with an 8-0 run, and eventually ran to its largest lead to 33-12 with 10:14 left in the first half. The Broncos closed the gap down to 47-32 at the half.
Cal Poly continued to chip away at the lead until it came within seven with 6:04 to play, but an old fashioned three-point play by Nevada senior Nicole Williams broke the run as the Pack again ran the lead back up to 18 by the three-minute mark.
"We weren't able to prepare as well as we will for Pepperdine on Sunday," head coach Jane Albright said. "With Cal Poly having a first-year head coach we didn't have as much tape to study. They were a good team who threw some things at us that we just didn't know how to handle at times."
Nevada was led by senior captain Tahnee Robinson who led all scorers with 33 points in 30 minutes of play. Robinson's 33 points set a new career high for the 2010 WAC Newcomer of the Year who scored on 12-21 from the field and 4-5 from the free throw line. It was the first time Nevada had a player score 30 or more points since Dellena Criner scored 30 against Louisiana Tech on March 12, 2009. Robinson tied another career mark scoring on five three-pointers for the third time in her career. The three-point tally puts Robinson in a 10-way tie for the eighth-best in school history.
" Tahnee's performance was amazing, but it's not going to be one of those one-time things," Albright said. "She is combing her great talent with a much improved physical condition that is going to really show this year."
Fellow senior Shavon Moore chipped in 17 points hitting on 5-7 from the field while grabbing five rebounds. Also scoring in double-digits was senior Nicole Williams with 11 points who also led the game with three steals. Junior Kayla Williams led the team with seven boards, while scoring five points.
The Wolf Pack opened the game on fire from the field, hitting on 63 percent of its shots going 17-27. Nevada ended the game shooting 49.1 percent, 8-16 from beyond the arc and 22-33 from the charity stripe. As a team, Nevada nearly set a record for threes in a game, connecting on eight shots, missing the record mark of 11 set back in 2002. The Pack also out-rebounded the Broncos 44-37 who were led by Reyana Colson who scored 23 points.
Nevada will continue its home-opening weekend Sunday, Nov. 14 at Lawlor Events Center. The Pack will play host to Pepperdine at 2 p.m. looking to avenge a 70-64 loss in Malibu last season. Tickets can be purchased by either calling (775) 348-PACK or logging on to www.nevadawolfpack.com.
