Pack overcomes fatigue, wins 4 of 5
The trial of endurance is done and the Nevada men’s basketball team remains in contention for the Western Athletic Conference regular season championship.With five games in 10 days, and a team full of freshmen and sophomores, the Wolf Pack managed to overcome fatigue and injuries to pull off four wins.
“I felt like on the trip home yesterday we looked like a bunch of zombies on the way home from Idaho,” Nevada coach Mark Fox said. “Fortunately, we’re going to have a chance to get a little rest here and move forward.”
The Wolf Pack’s journey started off well enough – the Wolf Pack blew out San Jose State and Hawaii last week before taking down then-conference leader Utah State at Lawlor Events Center on Feb. 11.
That win set up a battle with Boise State for control of the conference race in Boise on Thursday, but the fatigue of playing so many games with so little rest finally took its toll.
Nevada came out flat against the Broncos and fell behind 11-0 in the game’s first four minutes, and the Wolf Pack couldn’t muster the energy to come back in a 77-68 defeat.
The Wolf Pack struggled again on Saturday against Idaho, but made 32 of 35 free throws to pull away for an 85-72 win in a game the Vandals led with 12 minutes left.
“It was more difficult than I imagined it would be,” Fox said of the stretch. “There was so little time to prepare and no time to learn from the last game. Even today I feel fatigued and I didn’t play. Under the circumstances, I‘m happy with the way the kids played.”
The loss against the Broncos dropped Nevada to fourth place in the conference standings, leaving the Wolf Pack in need of help if it is to win the regular season championship for the fifth straight year.
But the race is still open.
The top-five teams are all within a game of each other in the loss column, with the Wolf Pack and Rainbow Warriors sitting behind the Broncos, New Mexico State and Utah State.
The Wolf Pack was swept by the Broncos and split with Utah State, but still has to travel to Fresno State. The Wolf Pack does have a home game left against New Mexico State, who it beat in Las Cruces, N.M., earlier this season.
The Broncos still have to make the San Jose State-Hawaii road trip, one of the toughest in the conference, and then come home to play Utah State, which is the Aggies last real test before the postseason.
“I think it is a matchup thing,” Utah State associate coach Tom Verlin said during Monday’s teleconference. “A lot of us have young and/or new players. For instance, I think that’s a little bit with Nevada. Some nights I think they’ve been just unbelievably good and shown the talented team that they are, and then other times just very similar to our team, just not mature enough to take their show and win on the road.”
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