Pack tops 100, loses next two

By: Juan López

Monday, December 7, 2009 - 10:34 PM

Lady Rebels guard Jamie Smith led her team to a 74-63 win over Nevada on Sunday. She scored 10 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Photo by Casey Durkin/Nevada Sagebrush

In its two losses this past weekend, the Nevada women’s basketball team scored a combined 120 points. In its one win, it notched 101.

An inconsistent offense was the key to the Wolf Pack’s successes and failures this weekend, which saw Nevada beat Sacramento State 101-72 on Wednesday, lose to Arizona 84-57 on Friday and to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas 74-63 on Sunday.

Against Sacramento State, the Wolf Pack’s offense was unstoppable. Nevada (5-4) shot 53.3 percent in the game and made a season-high 10 three-pointers. In the game, the Wolf Pack had season highs in points, rebounds, field goals made, field goal percentage and assists on its way to eclipsing the 100-point mark for the first time since 1986.

Holly Jones was the star of the day. The freshman guard set career bests in points (14), rebounds (eight), assists (five) and steals (five).

“Holly puts in more time in the gym than any player on my team,” Nevada women’s basketball coach Jane Albright said about Jones. “The individual work — there’s no comparison to the work she puts in on the gym. It’s fun because when you put in that much work, you want someone to be able to see the rewards of that.”

Wolf Pack forward Shavon Moore said the team came out with extra motivation for this game after putting up just 41 points the game before against West Virginia.

“I think there was a little more intensity because we wanted to prove that last game wasn’t us, that wasn’t how we play basketball,” said Moore, who scored a career-high 21 points in the game.

But in its next two games, the Wolf Pack shot a combined 33.6 percent from the field (38 of 113).

In its loss to Arizona, Nevada fell behind 10-0 to the Wildcats before making it a close game at halftime (Arizona led 32-24).

But in the second half, the Wildcats came out on fire. They went on a 33-8 run in the first 11:49 of the second half and cruised to a 27-point victory. Nevada had only three assists the entire game and its top scorer, Johnna Ward, was just 2 for 12 from the field.

In its last game of the week against the Lady Rebels, the Wolf Pack had a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde outing.

Nevada started the game on a 7-0 run and seemed to be on its way to a victory. UNLV responded with a 22-2 run and sported a 34-26 lead at halftime.

After falling behind by as many as 17 points in the second half, the Wolf Pack rallied to 61-58 with 4:00 left in the game. But UNLV closed the game on a 13-5 run and left town with a victory.

“They spent all their energy catching up in the second half and just didn’t have enough at the end,” Albright said of her team’s failed comeback attempt.

UNLV outplayed Nevada, pulling down 15 offensive rebounds and coming away with 17 steals.

“They outhustled us. They outworked us,” Albright said after the game. “They looked like they were hungry to win. I have not seen us play this way before.”

Facing its first losing streak of the year, the Wolf Pack will have a week off to prepare for its next game at Pepperdine at 5 p.m. on Dec. 18 in Malibu, Calif.

Juan López can be reached at jlopez@nevadasagebrush.com.