RENO, Nev. – With a 66-59 win over San Diego State Saturday afternoon, the Nevada women's basketball team snapped a four-game losing streak and earned its first Mountain West win of the season.
The Wolf Pack improved to 5-4 overall on the year and is now 1-3 in league play. Free throws and turnover improvement were the major takeaways from Saturday's game. In the first game against the Aztecs (3-7, 1-3 MW) on Thursday, the Pack committed 16 turnovers and cut that number down to nine on Saturday, while also improving its shooting percentage by roughly 12 percent from the field. Points from the free throw line though ultimately proved to be the difference maker on Saturday as Nevada shot 84 percent from the line, scoring 21 of its 66 points from the charity stripe. SDSU on the other hand finished 9-of-17 from the foul line.
Nevada was able to build up a comfortable lead, and maintain that lead, starting early in the second quarter. The Pack stayed about 5-7 points ahead of the Aztecs for much of that quarter and pushed the lead to double digits with under two to play until halftime after a pair of free throws from sophomore
Bethany Carstens. San Diego State found one more bucket before the half, sending Nevada to the locker room with an eight-point advantage.
Coming out of halftime the Wolf Pack owned the first part of the third quarter and then some, holding a double-digit lead until there were just 17 seconds remaining in the quarter. Trailing by as many as 17 in the period, the Aztecs did not go away quietly as they ended the third on a 10-3 run in the final two minutes to take a nine-point deficit into the fourth. San Diego State kept its foot on the gas as the final period got underway and clawed its way back to regain the lead after Isabella Hernandez hit a 3-pointer with under five to play to give the Aztecs a one-point lead. The lead was short lived however as freshman
Kenna Holt answered with a triple of her own with 4:12 to play that gave the lead back to Nevada for good.
Scoring for the Wolf Pack was pretty balanced, however juniors
Da'Ja Hamilton and
Amaya West combined for 30 of Nevada's 66 points. Hamilton led all scorers with 16 points and West added 14 points and had a team-high eight rebounds. West was also near perfect from the free throw line, knocking down 8-of-9. Holt posted a strong outing as well, finishing with a season-high eight points.
Nevada hits the road for the first time in Mountain West action next week when it travels to Fresno State to face the defending MW regular season champs Thursday and Saturday.
