McGee scores 22 in 64-57 win over Fresno State
Thursday, Mar. 13, 2008 @ 8:33 pm
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Nevada sophomore JaVale McGee scored 22 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the Nevada men’s basketball team beat Fresno State, 64-57 and advanced in the Western Athletic Conference Tournament on Thursday.
The Wolf Pack will play New Mexico State on Friday at 7:30 p.m. PST.
McGee had one of his strongest games of the season showing increased maturity.
“Hard fought victory for us,” Nevada coach Mark Fox said. “(McGee) is becoming a more and more experienced player and continues to get better and better.”
McGee was double teamed for most of the game. With about 10 minutes left in the game, McGee drew two defenders, spun toward the basket and dunked it to give the Wolf Pack a 49-44 lead.
“I’m trying to do what’s best for the team, whether I score a lot or not,” McGee said. “I just want to make sure we win.”
McGee’s offense helped a lot considering that leading scorer Marcelus Kemp was held to 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting. Kemp was seeing multiple defensive looks but made up for the offensive lull with nine rebounds and two assists.
“We’ve had a hard time guarding Kemp all year, but our guards did a good job against him tonight,” Fresno State coach Steve Cleveland said. “We just tried to deny him the ball as much as possible.”
Fresno State crept back in the game despite poor shooting in the first half. A Kevin Bell jump shot shrunk the Nevada lead, 43-40. That was as close as the Bulldogs would get as Nevada responded with a 10-3 run.
“We put ourselves in a position to get back into the game,” Cleveland said. “But you have to hit those shots.”
Fresno State hit 23-of-69 shots (33 percent), 8-of-31 in the first half, while the Wolf Pack hit 25-of-59 shots (42 percent). Nevada out rebounded the Bulldogs, 64-57, and had nine blocks compared to Fresno State’s four.
Photo by Amy Beck/Nevada Sagebrush
This entry was posted
on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 8:33 pm and is filed under 2008 WAC Tournament Coverage, Men's Basketball, Sports.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Print this post
Email this post
© 2008 The Nevada Sagebrush
