Nevada’s Stifling Press Defense Sparks Unrelenting 77-50 Domination Over Louisiana Tech

‘Tis the season for college hoops. The 2025-26 season for Nevada kicked off at home against Louisiana Tech with a dominant 77-50 win. With 10 new players, the team’s leaders and identity will continue to be established as the season carries on.

“We don’t have an identity yet,” head coach Steve Alford said after the game. “It’s early, but we’re creating some really good habits defensively that I like with this team.”

But there were a lot of arrows in the direction this team will go. It’s fast, it plays hard defense, and it’s deep with talented depth pieces. Led by a 24-point night by Chuck Bailey, one of the few returning Pack players, Nevada was able to flash its potential and start the season 1-0.

Scoring Summary

Louisiana Tech 18 – Nevada 34

Louisiana Tech 32 – Nevada 43

Final: Louisiana Tech 50, Nevada 77

Nevada has plenty of new faces this year, but a familiar one in Chuck Bailey got the Pack started with a free throw, followed by a bucket in the paint. He also scored Nevada’s first three of the game en route to a 12-1 run over four and a half minutes.

Both offenses went quiet near the end of the first half, combining for over eight minutes of no points. That broke at the 5:29 mark when sophomore forward Elijah Price rushed in the paint for two off a rebound.

Nevada’s offense shot 13-31 from the field and 3-11 from three in the first half. Bailey led the half with nine points on 3-7 shooting. The pace of play was noticeably faster after being one of the slowest teams in the nation last year.

Bailey finished the night as Nevada’s lead scorer with a dominant 24 points, four rebounds and two assists on 7-11 shooting. He also made 5-7 shots from deep.

“He [Bailey] has put in an enormous amount of work since our season ended at the Mountain West tournament last year,” Alford said. “What he’s done over the last six months of his work has been phenomenal. I don’t know if anybody’s put in any more work than Chuck has, and he’s ready for this.”

As a team, Nevada shot 25-56 (45 percent) from the field and 6-20 (30 percent) from beyond the arc. This team isn’t going to be a dominant three-point shooting team, so the early numbers shouldn’t be alarming.

Louisiana Tech got three on the board early in the first half but went into a scoring drought lasting over three minutes. Once the Bulldogs broke it, they fell right back into the non-scoring pit. Nevada’s defense held them scoreless for over seven minutes until the 2:04 mark of the first half.

The first half was overall quiet for the Bulldogs, who fell behind 34-18. They shot 29 percent from the field and missed all 12 three-point attempts. Forward Avery Thomas was their lead scorer in the first half with four points. Louisiana Tech held the lead for only 19 seconds of this game.

Louisiana Tech wasn’t much of a three-point threat either, ending the game going 3-22 and didn’t make a deep shot in the first half. The Bulldogs found a bit more luck from deep in the second half, shooting 3-9 in that department. Overall, Louisiana Tech shot 18-50 from the field.

The Bulldogs’ lead scorer was a three-way tie between AJ Bates, Kylan Howze and DJ Dudley with nine points.

Nevada rolled out a pretty heavy press defense in this one, something that Alford hasn’t done much in his career.

“If you look at my 35-year coaching career, the 34 years prior, you could probably add up the number of times I’ve pressed, and tonight was more in one game. So we’ve just taken on a different identity, and it’s fun.”

Senior guard Tayshawn Comer added his experience with press defense and how much it’ll add to Nevada’s growing identity.

“I love it. I mean, I’ve been pressing since my freshman year, so I’m kind of used to it, but I’m kind of used to picking up anyway, and we all picked up, and I think that’d be a good advantage for us against other teams, and especially teams that don’t really have a point guard. So I think that was a huge advantage today.”

Nevada’s defense used 45 rebounds and 13 turnovers to limit Louisiana Tech to a 27-point game. Personal fouls gave the Bulldogs some slight pep in their step toward the end, as a combined 38 fouls were called in this one (21 against LA Tech, 17 against Nevada).

What’s Next

Nevada will stay home to host Pacific on Saturday, Nov. 8. The Wolf Pack have a six-game winning streak against the Tigers and won 88-39 in their most recent matchup two years ago, also at Lawlor.

Tip-off is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. PST.