Nevada’s Heart-Stopping 78-77 Victory Over Pacific Leaves Fans on the Edge of Their Seats

It was a stressful day for Nevada fans, who had to start their day with a 51-14 loss from the football program. Turn the page to men’s basketball, and while a win was captured on the court, it was one hell of a stressful game.

“I gotta get some Tylenol,” head coach Steve Alford said after his team’s close 78-77 victory over Pacific that literally came down to the final seconds.

Scoring Summary

Pacific 40 – Nevada 40

Pacific 37 – Nevada 38

Final: Pacific 77, Nevada 78

When these two programs faced off a few years ago, Nevada won in a lopsided 88-39 game. These are brand new teams and new seasons, and with that, they brought a much more competitive edge for these two schools. Nevada was able to create a 10-point lead in the first half, but it was a constant of tug-o-war the rest of the way.

The first half ended in a 40-40 tie with Tayshawn Comer leading the Pack with 14 points. The rest of the offense needed time to warm up, but the physicality was strong as nearly half of those 40 points came inside the paint.

The second half was no different. Nevada came out with the early lead on a jumper from Joel Armotrading, but it once again became a game of hot potato. The Pack saw themselves down by as much as four points deep into the second half, a stretch where both sides were trading off buckets.

A huge play came at the 2:43 mark when Tyler Rolison hit a three to give Nevada a 72-70 lead. From there, Nevada went on a 6-3 run and added some insurance with a layup by Comer at the 40-second mark.

Nevada finished the night shooting 43 percent from the field, 27 percent from three and 62 percent from the free-throw line. Comer led the offense with 19 points on 7-12 shooting, trailed by Rolison (14), Corey Camper Jr. (12), Armotrading (11) and Elijah Price (10).

As they say, a win is a win, but it was a game that shouldn’t have come down to the final seconds. Comer and Alford said after the game that their practices leading up to this game didn’t go as well as they should’ve, and it showed in tonight’s game.

“It’s always good to get a win, but I’m not the happiest with our performance as a team,” Comer said. “It was a good team. Pacific is a good team. I just feel like we didn’t prepare early on in practice before we played them, so that kind of dictated how we played today. So I think just really going back to the drawing board and getting better and looking for the next game.”

“They [Pacific] did a great job,” Alford added. “They exploited us in some ways that we haven’t been exploited yet. So this is going to be a great film and the staff will break it down.”

Pacific was extremely pesky all game. While Nevada held the lead for most of it, Pacific kept clawing its way back to keep it tied at halftime. Forward Elias Ralph scored 12 in the first half and ended as the Tigers’ lead scorer with 21.

In last week’s win against LA Tech, Nevada didn’t have to worry about the deep ball hurting. It was a different story with Pacific, shooting 44 percent from three in the first half and 46 percent overall (15-33).

The lead changed 12 times and was tied 10 times. Alford said the attention to detail defensively just wasn’t there, and a few lucky bounces (literally) was the difference maker.

With five seconds left, Nevada was inbounding the ball. Rolison threw it out, and it was stolen by Pacific, who drove into the paint with a chance to win the game. The ball bounced off the rim, rebounded by Pacific, and missed again as time expired.

Nevada avoided being added to the long list of Mountain West schools that have lost to terrible non-conference opponents. While it was narrow victory, coming out with a win is much easier to build on.

“One, you have a lot of parody. Two, you get early in the season, you got very little film in preparation, and three, there’s so many transfers that you just don’t know who’s got what and and even lower-level teams, the Division Two, Division Three NAIA players,” Alford said. “You’re seeing a lot of those players now at our level, and those teams are good, really good, and so it’s difficult. That’s why I told them I’m proud of them. Our defense was 30 points higher in efficiency today. That’s terrible. We did not guard the way we’ve got to guard, and I hope our guys learn that lesson, but to learn it in a win, it’s a lot better than learning those lessons and taking a loss. So I’m proud of how they fought and got the win.”

What’s Next

Nevada stays home to host Southern Illinois on Wednesday, Nov. 12, at Lawlor. The Salukis are also 2-0, so it’ll be a battle of two undefeated teams.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. PST.