RENO, Nev. - Nick Fazekas picked up right where he left off last season. The Nevada senior forward had 29 points and 10 rebounds in just 21 minutes of action Friday night to lead No. 24 Nevada to a season-opening 85-62 victory over Division II Alaska-Anchorage.
"I had no idea I had that many points in that amount of time," said Fazekas, who scored 23 points in 12 minutes in the first half, including 19 during a 7-minute stretch as Nevada opened a 41-29 halftime lead.
"I wasn't even cognizant of it. Guys were giving me the ball in the right spot and the shots were falling for me."
He averaged 21.8 points last season.
"I felt like I got in a groove in the first half and just felt good, like anything was going to go for me," said Fazekas, who made all six of his free-throw attempts and was 11-of-14 from the field, including a 3-pointer.
Marcelus Kemp scored 14 of his 17 points in the second half and Ramon Sessions added 15 points and six assists for Nevada, which went on a 17-0 run early in the second half to run away with the game. The Wolf Pack have won 10 straight at home and are 46-5 at home since the start of the 2003-04 season.
Eric Draper scored 12 points, Buddy Bailey 11 and Cameron Burney 10 for Alaska-Anchorage, which trailed by as much as 33 points, 77-44, when Kemp hit his fifth 3-pointer of the game with 8:15 remaining.
While the game was the official season opener for Nevada, it counted as an exhibition for the Seawolves (2-0) due to an NCAA rule that allows Division II schools to play exhibition games against non-Division II schools prior to their season start date of Nov. 15.
Alaska-Anchorage coach Rusty Osborne said Fazekas started dictating the game early by grabbing several offensive rebounds.
"That really got him into his rhythm," Osborne said. "When that starts happening, it makes them tough to beat."
With Nevada leading 41-29 at halftime, Draper made a 3-pointer to cut it to 46-34 about 3 minutes into the second half. But over the next 4 minutes, Sessions scored eight points, Denis Ikovlev five and Fazekas four while the Seawolves went scoreless to put Nevada on top 63-34 with 13:08 left in the game.
Fazekas, who was playing his 100th career game for Nevada, was one of 21 NCAA players to average double digits in both scoring and rebounds last season.
"He got off to a great start," Nevada coach Mark Fox said. "He's just so efficient. If we'd left him in there he probably could have gone for a bunch."
Fazekas moved into fourth on Nevada's career rebounding list with 898, surpassing Nap Montgomery, who had 890 in 78 games from 1975-79. He is second on the school's career scoring list with 1,841 points and is 37 away from passing school leader Edgar Jones, who scored 1,877 in 101 games from 1975-79.
Fazekas and David Ellis each scored four points in the first 3:30 and freshman JaVale McGee scored off a rebound to put Nevada ahead 13-2 at 13:50 in the first half.
The Seawolves responded with five 3-pointers - two each by Bailey and Burney and one by Carl Arts - to pull to 24-17 at 8:06 before the half but could pull no closer the rest of the game.
Fox, whose team plays next at Oregon State on Wednesday, said he was pleased with the Wolf Pack's defensive play early but "really disappointed with our defense at the end of the first half."
"Our defense really sparked our offense to start the second half. We got a lot of points off our defensive effort," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment