Three in a row: Nevada men’s basketball has third straight win

Nevada men’s basketball came back home to face Pepperdine after five away games. Nevada put up a thirteen point win, making the final score 79–60.

Going into the game, Pepperdine stood 2–6 with their last four games being losses. Nevada stood 3–4, winning their last two games.

K.J. Hymes started the Nevada scoring off and Warren Washington added 4 consecutive points. Washington also had a big block on a dunk attempt by Pepperdine’s Jade’ Smith.

Grant Sherfield seems to be taking the leader role the team has been looking for. Sherfield started a comeback for Nevada after being scoreless from 8:56- 6:31. He added six points to tie the game 26–26.

Nevada had a field goal percentage of 51.6, making 16 out of 31 shots. Pepperdine only had a 34.3 percentage on field goals.

At halftime Nevada led 35–32.

Sherfield and Will Baker helped Nevada gain a lead at the beginning of the second half. Baker had two good free throws and two layups. Sherfield and Cambridge had back to back threes along with adding a couple of twos in the mix. These consistent shots gave Nevada an over 20 point lead at 69–46.

Pepperdine was able to gain seven points off of Nevada fouls and a couple of layups and jumpers to get them to 66 points. Nevada now only had a 10 point lead for the last three minutes of the game.

Sherfield added four points in the last minute of the game, and Baker had a wide open dunk for Nevada’s last play of the game.

Nevada had a lower field goal percentage for the second half of 41.18. Their three point percentage was just as good as their field goal percentage. Nevada made six out of 15 three pointers.

Tré Coleman got back in his groove, scoring five points and getting four rebounds. Coleman has not been able to rack up points in two consecutive games until tonight. In the previous game against Washington, he got four points. Although the numbers aren’t high, the sophomore is increasing his consistency.

Sherfield was so close to getting a triple-double in tonight’s game. He had 24 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Sherfield would have needed to get two more rebounds to achieve the triple-double. Nevada has not had a player do this in over 42 years. Sherfield’s performance tonight got him his third career double-double.

With Steve Alford, head coach, being out due to COVID-19, the team was run by assistant coaches Kory Barnett and Bill Duany and the director of player development Glen Worley. Some coaches and players were wearing masks while on the bench.

Barnett did not seem to include the bench in the game as much as Alford has been. Even with the large lead Nevada held in the second half, the same players were being subbed in. Hymes made an appearance tonight for 14 minutes and got three points. Alem Huseinovic was on the court for three minutes and was unable to gain any points. Kenan Blackshear had 23 minutes and Daniel Foster had 21. Blackshear added two points and Foster added three points for Nevada.

The next game will be away against North Texas on Dec. 4 at 11 a.m. North Texas stands at 3–3 in the season.

Kelsey Middleton can be reached at kelseymiddleton@sagebrush.unr.edu or on Twitter @kelsmiddleunr

Originally published at http://nevadasagebrush.com.