It was the return of playoff basketball for the Nevada men’s basketball team, hosting a first-round NIT game against Murray State. The storylines between these programs have been a topic of discussion ever since this matchup was announced, and Nevada came out on top 89-75.
These two squads almost played each other in August in the Bahamas. Murray State head coach Ryan Miller once coached under Steve Alford at New Mexico. Nevada associate head coach Craig Neal’s son, Cullen Neal, was on the other side
as a Murray State assistant coach. It was a unique experience, but Alford & Co. won the family feud.
“Not an easy game for coach Neal and myself,” Alford said about playing family/old friends. “Playing family and former coaches from my staff is never easy; it’s something I don’t enjoy, but that’s what the bracket said.”
Scoring Summary
1st Half
Murray State 39 – Nevada 41
2nd Half
Murray State 36 – Nevada 48
Final: Murray State 75 – Nevada 89
First Half
Murray State struck first with a three-pointer for a 3-0 lead, but Tayshawn Comer cut it down to one with a midrange floater. The Racers kept their high-tempo pace, scoring seven points within the first three minutes. The first shot beyond the arc for Nevada came courtesy of Kaleb Lowery.
Nevada tied it up at seven on a fast break dunk from Vaughn Weems. It wasn’t long after until Elijah Price threw up a floater for the Pack’s first lead of the night. Murray State kept the pressure on, especially with its three-point shooting, but Peyton White cut it back to another one-point game with Nevada’s second three.
Tyler Rolison hit a three as well to give Nevada a 21-20 lead at the 10-minute mark. From then on, it became a game of hot potato with the lead, as the two sides traded the lead 13 times in the first half. Entering another media timeout at 6:40, Nevada held a 27-26 lead.
Corey Camper Jr. scored his first shot from beyond the arc with under two minutes to go, giving Nevada a 40-37 lead. The Pack held that lead firm, although the defense did allow a put-back dunk as the buzzer went off. Murray State shot eight first-half threes and shot over 46 percent from the field.
“It took us a while to get settled in defensively,” Alford said. “We thought that would happen because they’re so good offensively, and they made eight threes in the first half and just three in the second.”
Nevada shot an even 50 percent from the field in the first half and 40 percent from three. Camper led with nine-points on 4-7 shooting.
Second Half
Nevada opened it up in the second half with a put-back bucket from Camper that pushed him into double-digit scoring. Murray State responded with a long floater of its own and kept the back-and-forth matchup going.
A few more scores in the paint, and Nevada forced Murray State to call an early timeout just two minutes into the second half with a 47-41 lead. Nevada turned the gears up a bit, making six of seven shots from the field for a seven-point lead.
It helped that Murray State missed its first five shots from three in the second half, as the Racers didn’t score from that line until the 12:35 minute mark.
Camper hit another floater that gave Nevada a double-digit lead at 60-50 under the 14-minute mark. During that time, Murray State hit a scoring drought of over three minutes before hitting its first three to cut it back under 10-points. Murray State collected a foul with an and-one but missed the free-throw, bringing it to a 64-55 Nevada lead after a media timeout at the 12-minute mark.
The Racers hit another scoring drought that allowed the Wolf Pack to take a 17-point lead and an 8-0 run. Murray State called a timeout to slow Nevada down under 10 minutes with a score of 72-55 in favor of Nevada. The Wolf Pack hit the 80-point mark with four and a half minutes left, thanks to a layup from Lowery.
Nevada forced 15 turnovers on Murray State while the Pack turned the ball over just five times. As a team, Nevada shot 51 percent from the field and 33 percent from three. Weems led Nevada in scoring with 23 points on 9-13 shooting.
“They [Nevada] came out of the second half and punched us in the face,” Miller said. “It’s a credit to our guys and credit to them all year long, they just kept fighting all the way down to the last buzzer, but today, Nevada was better than us.”
What’s Next
Nevada advances to round two of the NIT and will host another playoff game, this time against Liberty. The Flames won their first NIT game against George Mason 77-71, and Alford said it’s going to be another tough battle at Lawlor.
“Liberty is really good,” Alford said. “Should’ve been an NCAA Tournament team, they dominated Conference USA, and I saw their game the other night and won on the road pretty convincingly, so we know we got a really good basketball team coming in here Saturday.
Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. PST on Saturday, March 21.
