RENO, Nev. – It's conference tournament time for the Nevada women's basketball team.

The Wolf Pack will begin its run towards the program's first Mountain West championship this Monday, March 8 with a 2:30 p.m. matchup against the No. 4 seed Fresno State. Nevada secured the No. 5 seed in this year's Air Force Reserve Mountain West Championship, its highest seed in the conference tournament under Amanda Levens, and its highest conference tournament seed since the 2013-14 season when Nevada was the No. 3 seed. With the fifth seed the Wolf Pack also earned a first round bye for the first time since 2014.

Nevada is rolling into the conference tournament on a five-game win streak and winners of eight of its last 10 games. The Wolf Pack is fresh off of a conference series sweep on the road at Air Force to end the regular season. Nevada earned a hard fought 59-56 win in game one, and won by double digits in game two, 69-58. In the first game Nia Alexander tied her career-high of 20 points and was on fire on offense, hitting 9-of-13 from the field. Air Force had Nevada's number on the boards in game one, outrebounding the Pack by nine, but in game two Nevada dominated on the glass, grabbing 47 rebounds to Air Force's 27.
 
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. 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
• This is Nevada's highest MW seeding (5) since the 2013-14 season
• Also Nevada's first conference tournament first round bye since 2014
• Amanda Levens earned career win No. 100 last Wednesday at Air Force
• Nevada finished with a winning overall record for the first time since 2014
• The Pack's 9-7 MW record is also the most conference wins since 2014

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 game 62 in the all-time series next week. The series has mostly been one sided however, with the Bulldogs winning 47 of the 61 games so far. Nevada and Fresno State met twice during the regular season in Fresno with the Bulldogs winning both contests. These two teams also have a fresh memory of facing one another in the Mountain West Tournament as the Wolf Pack and Bulldogs met 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 (W, 69-58 at Air Force)
• Nevada earned its second consecutive sweep after defeating Air Force
• The Pack had four in double figures, led by 17 from Da'Ja Hamilton
• Nevada outrebounded Air Force, 47-27
• Da'Ja Hamilton fell one rebound shy of her first career double-double
• Pack held the Falcons to under 40 percent on offense
• Pack scored 32 of its 69 points in the paint

1-0-0
Nevada head coach Amanda Levens earned career win No. 100 last Wednesday as the Wolf Pack defeated Air Force, 59-56. Levens took over the Wolf Pack in 2017-18 and holds a record of 59-60 while with Nevada. In her two head coaching stints, which includes three plus seasons at Nevada and four seasons at the helm at Southern Illinois, Edwardsville (SIUE), she owns an overall career record of 101-136. In both head coaching stints she took over struggling programs, attempting to rebuild.

TOURNAMENT FIRSTS
Heading into this year's Mountain West tournament, Nevada has a few things to celebrate. For the first time since the 2013-14 season the Wolf Pack has earned a first round bye in the conference tournament, and will hold its highest seeding since that same year when it was the No. 3 seed. Nevada was picked to finish 10th in the preseason Mountain West poll, and earned a fifth place finish in the conference standings and the No. 5 seed in this year's conference tournament.

In addition to all of the seedings and first round bye talks, the Wolf Pack has also finished the regular season with a winning record for the first time since 2013-14. The Wolf Pack wrapped up the regular season with a 13-8 overall record and a 9-7 mark in Mountain West play, its best overall and conference record since 2013-14.

D-FENCE
The Wolf Pack has been one of the top defensive teams in the Mountain West this season. Through the regular season Nevada ranks second in the league in scoring defense, giving up an average of just 63.3 points per game. The defense has been extremely solid as of late as the Wolf Pack has held opponents to 60 points or fewer in its last five games. Nevada has been particularly good at holding opponents in check from the 3-point line as the Pack ranks second in the MW holding its opponents to just 28.9 percent from beyond the arc.

DA'JA, DA'JA, DA'JA
Junior Da'Ja Hamilton has established herself as one of the premier players in the Mountain West this season. In the series finale at UNLV, not only did she hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds on the clock to break a 70-70 tie, but she finished the contest with a career-high 32 points, the first 30-point game of her career. Hamilton's 32 points at UNLV rank as the second-most points in a single game by a Mountain West player this season. In the game she connected on 12-of-23 from the field and was 4-of-7 from the 3-point line, but really caught fire in the fourth quarter. Hamilton's first triple of the game was a half court heave at the buzzer just before halftime, sending Nevada to the locker room trailing by only two. Her other three triples all came in the fourth quarter, helping Nevada to keep pace with UNLV, and eventually, seal the win for the Wolf Pack.

She followed that performance up with two near 20-point games at Boise State, scoring 19 in game one and 18 in game two. Last week at Air Force she scored in double figures in both games, and led the team with 17 points in game two, including three 3-pointers. Entering this week's series at Air Force, Hamilton is averaging 14.5 points per game, which ranks her seventh in the conference. At 2.9 assists per game, she ranks inside the top 15 in the league in that category.

ON A ROLL
The Wolf Pack has been one of the best teams in the Mountain West over the last month and is clicking at the right time as conference tournament time looms next week. Nevada wrapped up the regular season having won five in a row and won eight of its last 10 games. The Pack has three series sweeps, over Wyoming, Utah State and Air Force, and earned series splits with UNLV and Boise State, two of the top teams in the Mountain West.

This past week in the regular season finale at Air Force, Nevada earned a hard fought 59-56 win in game one and survived a Falcons comeback bid in the fourth to secure a 69-58 win in game two. After being outrebounded by nine in game one, Nevada dominated the boards in the second game, outrebounding the Falcons by a 47-27 margin. Senior Nia Alexander scored in double figures in both games, including tying her career-high of 20 points in game one. Alexander shot above 60 percent combined between the two games.

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 - 18 points shy of 200
• Megan Ormiston - 33 points shy of 300
• Bethany Carstens - 25 points shy of 400
• Nia Alexander - 20 points shy of 800

UP NEXT: SEMIFINALS
Should Nevada beat Fresno State on Monday in the quarterfinals, it will advance to Tuesday's semifinals at 5 p.m. against either No. 1 New Mexico, No. 8 San Diego State or No. 9 Air Force. It would be Nevada's third appearance in the MW tournament semifinals and first since 2017-18.