RENO, Nev. – It's back to the road for the Nevada women's basketball team, which will travel to Fresno, Calif. for its first conference road series of the season to face the defending Mountain West regular season champs, Fresno State this week.

The first of the two games will be held this Thursday, Jan. 14 at 6 p.m. and the second game will take place this Saturday, Jan. 16 at 2 p.m. These two contests are Nevada's first on the road since it faced Saint Mary's in Moraga on Dec. 21, and are Nevada's first set of road games in Mountain West play.

Nevada earned its first league win of the season its last time out, a 66-59 victory over San Diego State to split the two-game series with the Aztecs. Fresno State on the other hand has played just two MW games after its series against SJSU last week was postponed. The Bulldogs did add a non-conference game against Cal State Bakersfield on Sunday, which they lost 81-69.
 
ON THE AIR
Josh Suchon will have the call in Northern Nevada on CBS Sports Radio 94.1 FM and 1450 AM with a 20 minute pregame show prior to tipoff for both games. Fans can also tune in to listen to Suchon's broadcast online at TuneIn.com or via the TuneIn app.
 
The game will also be live streamed on the Mountain West Network.

QUICK HITS
• With seven wins, Levens will reach 100 victories in her Division I career
• Nevada is 1st in the MW, and 18th nationally, in free throw percentage
• Da'Ja Hamilton is in the top 10 in the MW in scoring and assists
• Nevada earned its first conference win of the season last time out
• Da'Ja Hamilton needs 37 points to reach 500 in her career

SERIES HISTORY
Nevada and Fresno State have one of the longest running series' in the Wolf Pack's program history as the two teams will play games 60 and 61 in the all-time series this week. The series has mostly been one sided however, with the Bulldogs winning 45 of the 59 games so far. Since the 2006-07 season Fresno State is 26-6 over Nevada, but in the Amanda Levens era the Pack has been more competitive against the Bulldogs, going 3-4 since 2017-18. The last time these two teams met was in the quarterfinals of the 2020 Mountain West Tournament where the Wolf Pack nearly upset the No. 1 seeded Bulldogs, but fell 75-71 in the end.

LAST TIME OUT
• Pack earned its first MW win of the season, 66-59 over SDSU
• Da'Ja Hamilton led all scorers with 16 points
• Amaya West scored a season-high 14 points and was 8-of-9 from the FT line
• Kenna Holt's 3-pointer with 4:12 left gave Nevada the lead for good
• Kenna Holt scored a season-high eight points in the win
• Nevada was 21-of-25 from the free throw line

HOLT NAMED WOLF PACK STUDENT-ATHLETE OF THE WEEK
Freshman Kenna Holt provided an offensive and defensive spark coming off the bench to help the Wolf Pack to a 66-59 win over San Diego State on Saturday. The win snapped a four-game losing streak for the Pack and was Nevada's first Mountain West win of the season.
 
The Reno native saw nearly 30 minutes on the floor coming off the bench and scored a season-high eight points. She connected on 2-of-4 from the 3-point line, including the go-ahead triple with 4:12 left in the fourth quarter that gave the lead back to Nevada for good and halted any SDSU momentum. Holt also added two rebounds, two assists and did not turn the ball over in the victory.

HAMILTON OFF TO HOT START
Da'Ja Hamilton, who has started in all but one game this season, is off to a hot start in her junior season. Hamilton currently leads the team in scoring averaging 14.2 points per game and also leads with 32 assists. She ranks in the top 10 in the Mountain West in each of those two categories as well, asserting herself as one of the top players in the league. In the win over Fresno Pacific she produced the first 20-point game of her career, finishing with a career-high 24 points. She has scored in double figures in nearly every game this season, with the exception of two games. She is shooting 34.1 percent from the field and boasts a 1.6 assist to turnover ratio.

MILESTONE WATCH
Nevada has a few players who are approaching milestones, some of whom could hit those numbers over the span of the next two games.

• LaPraisjah Johnson - 9 points shy of 100
• Amaya West - 12 points shy of 300
• Megan Ormiston - 15 points shy of 200
• Bethany Carstens - 34 points shy of 400
• Da'Ja Hamilton - 37 points shy of 500
• Nia Alexander - 40 points for 700

STRONG PLAY FROM P
Nine games into the start of the 2020-21 season, LaPraisjah Johnson is making the most of her senior season. The Texas native is averaging 8.7 points per game, compared to just 1.9 points per game in seven total appearances last season. In the second game against New Mexico, Johnson scored a team and career-high 17 points and was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free throw line. She also tied her career-high of seven rebounds in that game and was 4-of-7 from the field. Johnson scored a total of 13 points all of last season and has totaled 78 points so far this season.

ORMISTON AND CARSTENS SUIT UP FOR THE PACK
After an NCAA waiver cleared them for competition this season, transfers Megan Ormiston and Bethany Carstens have made an immediate impact for the Wolf Pack. Carstens made her debut against Fresno Pacific but made her presence known in the team's second game against New Mexico. Carstens earned her first start in a Wolf Pack uniform in that game and totaled a season-high 10 points and five rebounds.

Ormiston has been one of the Pack's best players as of late, and the numbers speak for themselves. The UC Santa Barbara transfer is averaging 10.3 points and 6.8 rebounds in her first six games, and has started in five of those six. She tallied 16 points and tied her then career-high of nine rebounds in her debut against Fresno Pacific and followed that up with a career-best 18 points and seven rebounds against the Gaels. In the Pack's first game against San Diego State she posted a career-high 11 rebounds, the first double-digit rebounding game of her career.

ROOKIE PROWESS
Just nine games into the 2020-21 season, Nevada has already seen some key contributions from some of its rookies. Reno native Kenna Holt has impressed with her tenacious defense and keen eye on the court. In nine games Holt leads Nevada with 13 steals and second on the team with 21 assists. She is averaging 1.4 steals per game, which ranks in the top 15 in the Mountain West. Lexie Givens has seen a fair amount of playing time as well and posted her best game so far in the second contest at Sacramento State where she scored six points and grabbed six rebounds in a season-high 18 minutes on the court. Gabby Rones made her collegiate debut in her hometown of Sacramento, playing in both games at Sacramento State, and earned her first collegiate start during the Pack's second game against New Mexico.
 
UP NEXT: WYOMING COMES TO TOWN
Following the two-game road series at Fresno State this week, Nevada will return to Lawlor Events Center to host Wyoming for a pair of games on Friday, Jan. 22 at 6 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 24 at 12:30 p.m.