Michael McGarvey
A look at the Nevada Wolf Pack's 77-66 overtime victory over the Fresno State Bulldogs on Saturday at Fresno, Calif.:
KEY WOLF PACK RUN
The Pack's largest run was 10-0 early in the second half that turned a 38-30 deficit into a 40-38 lead with 13:39 to go in regulation. But that run didn't decide anything. The Pack run that finally put the struggling Bulldogs (now 4-13, 0-6) out of their misery didn't take place until overtime. The Pack, which looked like a team asking to be beat over the first 40 minutes, dominated the extra five minutes, 13-2, to win going away. The Pack was 4-of-8 from the floor in the overtime as Fresno missed four of its five shots. The Pack also outrebounded the Bulldogs 7-0 in overtime as Fresno State simply ran out of gas and was unable to put up a fight after Alex Crawford's 3-pointer tied the game at the regulation buzzer, 64-64.
KEY FRESNO RUN
The Bulldogs trailed 55-47 with just over six minutes to play in regulation and looked to be running on fumes. But the Pack got sloppy, let its foot up off the gas and watched Fresno State go on a 9-0 run to take a 56-55 lead with 3:24 to play. David Douglas had two threes and a free throw and Zaon Collins had a layup to fuel the Bulldogs’ run. But that run was more about the Pack breaking down than anything else. The Pack didn't score a point for over four minutes (6:51 left to 2:39 left), missed four 3-pointers and turned the ball over four times to let the Bulldogs back into the game.
KEY PACK RECOVERY
Tre Coleman had a miserable first and second half, basically keeping Fresno State in the game all by himself and nearly allowing the Bulldogs to steal a victory they clearly didn't deserve. Coleman missed all seven of his shots from the floor (all were misguided threes), didn't score a single point, committed four fouls and turned the ball over twice. The only positive to come from Coleman in the first 40 minutes were when he gave up the ball (five assists). That all miraculously changed in overtime, however, as Coleman emerged from the dead. The 6-7 veteran scored seven of the Pack's 13 points in the extra five minutes to save himself and his teammates from an embarrassing loss.
KEY PACK STATS
How Fresno State, a team that has won just 27-of-81 games overall and 10-of-42 in Mountain West play since the start of the 2022-23 season, was even able to stay in this game and force an overtime defies all basketball logic. The Pack basically dominated the game but somehow never could shake a bad Fresno State team until the overtime. The Wolf Pack had a 53-34 edge on the boards, dominated the paint (44-20), owned a 23-10 advantage in second-chance points, had three fewer turnover (11-14), made more shots (27-19), even got more production from its bench (29-22) and still almost lost. How did this game even get to overtime? The only explanation is that the Pack, which has a tendency to falsely believe it is the Sierra version of the Golden State Warriors' Splash Brothers, missed 24-of-29 threes instead of continuing to pound the ball inside where it found all of its success.
KEY CONCERN
The Wolf Pack's hope, of course, is that it not only ended a four-game losing streak on Saturday, it also turned its season around in the five-minute overtime. That could very well prove to be what we saw at Fresno State. Only time will tell. But the Pack, if it is going to be honest with itself, actually played worse on Saturday against one of the worst teams in the conference than it did in any of the losses during the four-game losing streak. Coach Steve Alford, by putting role players Daniel Foster and K.J. Hymes in the starting unit, continues to play offense 3-on-5 against opponents. And when Coleman has a bad shooting night (which can happen far too often) they are going 2-on-5. That is how you find yourself in overtime against a bad team that just scored a mere 64 points on you in regulation.
KEY PACK PERFORMERS
The Pack, which is relying far too heavily on its bench for scoring lately, never would have beaten Fresno State on Saturday without Xavier DuSell and Justin McBride. DuSell and McBride each scored a dozen points in 40 combined minutes off the bench, outscoring starters Coleman, Hymes and Foster, who mustered just 13 points in their 74 combined minutes. DuSell, playing against his former teammates, scored 10 points in the game's final 15:29. His 3-pointer gave the Pack a 60-56 lead with just 2:15 in regulation and his jumper in the paint helped put the Bulldogs away in overtime, giving the Pack a 73-66 lead with two minutes left. McBride did his best work before DuSell stepped up, scoring all 12 of his points in the game's first 31 minutes. He had offensive rebounds and layups to tie the game at 38-38 and for a 49-47 lead.
KEY LEADER
The Pack, during its four-game losing streak, seemed desperate for someone to finally step up, take the reins of leadership and carry it to victory. Enter Nick Davidson on Saturday. The 6-9 junior didn't exactly put his teammates on his back (he had just three points in the final 15 minutes of the second half) but he had a brilliant game just the same, scoring 20 points with 14 rebounds (seven on the offensive glass), four assists and two blocks. Davidson missed his first two shots (both threes) in the game's first three minutes and then smartly adjusted his mindset and focus and never took another three the rest of the game. Davidson went inside and made 6-of-10 shots the rest of the game, drew fouls and calmly drained 8-of-10 free throws. When he wasn't scoring in the second half, he had seven rebounds, blocked a shot, had two assists and was 3-of-4 from the line in the final 15 minutes before overtime.
KEY JERIAH COLEMAN SIGHTING
Coleman, a 7-footer in his fourth college season, had not stepped foot on the court during a game in 11 months, since he played a whole minute against Wyoming on Feb. 20, 2024. But there was Coleman on Saturday in Fresno, playing exactly the final 3:21 of the first half. He blocked a shot by the Bulldogs' Mykell Robinson in the paint and also converted a layup to cut Fresno's lead to 29-28 with under a minute to go before halftime. He was only in the game, apparently, because starting center K.J. Hymes went to the bench for the final 3:35 of the half. Coleman, though, went back to his customary role as the biggest cheerleader in Division I for the second half and overtime and never found his way back to the court.
KEY HISTORICAL NOTE
An overtime game is certainly nothing new in the Nevada-Fresno State rivalry. But it was the first in almost nine years. The teams played four overtime games against each other in a span of 10 games from February 2012 to February 2016, with the Pack winning three. The 79-76 triple-overtime Wolf Pack victory on Feb. 25, 2012, in Fresno (Deonte Burton played all 15 minutes in the three extra periods and scored 11 points) was the first overtime game in the rivalry since a 52-50 Nevada loss in OT in Fresno on Feb. 3, 1940.
UP NEXT
The Wolf Pack (9-7, 1-4) will host Air Force (3-13, 0-5) on Tuesday (Jan. 14) night at Lawlor Events Center. The game will be televised on Nevada Sports Net. Air Force has lost six games in a row and nine of its last 10. The Pack leads the rivalry 18-3 and has won 14 of the last 15 games (10-1 at Lawlor Events Center).