It’s a return to postseason basketball for the Nevada men’s basketball team as they take on Murray State University in a first-round NIT game. The storyline between these programs has been a topic of discussion since the game was announced, with Nevada winning 89-75.
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The two teams nearly met in the Bahamas in August. Murray State head coach Ryan Miller coached under Steve Alford at New Mexico State. Karen Neal, the son of Nevada associate head coach Craig Neal, is on the other side as an assistant coach at Murray State. It was a unique experience, but Alford Company won the family feud.
“It’s not an easy game for Coach Neal and myself,” Alford said of the game against family/old friends. “It’s never easy playing with my family and former coaches; it’s something I don’t enjoy, but that’s what the team says.”
Rating summary
first half
Murray State 39 – Nevada 41
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second half
Murray State 36 – Nevada 48
Final: Murray State 75 – Nevada 89
first half
Murray State opened the scoring with a 3-pointer to take a 3-0 lead, but Tayshawn Comer hit a mid-range jumper to tie the game at one. The Racers kept up the pace, scoring seven points in the first three minutes. Nevada’s first shot from beyond the arc came from Kaleb Lowery.
Nevada tied the game at seven on a Vaughn Wims fast-break dunk. Shortly after, Elijah Price hit a floater to give the team its first lead of the night. Murray State continued to apply the pressure, especially from 3-point range, but Peyton White tied the game at another point on Nevada’s second 3-pointer.
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Tyler Rolison also hit a three-pointer to give Nevada a 21-20 lead at the 10-minute mark. From then on, the game became a hot potato game with the two sides alternating the lead 13 times in the first half. Entering the media timeout at 6 minutes and 40 seconds, Nevada led 27-26.
With less than two minutes left in the game, Nevada led 40-37 on Corey Camper Jr.’s first shot from beyond the arc. Although the defense did allow a dunk as the buzzer sounded, the Wolfpack held on to their lead. Murray State made eight three-pointers in the first half and shot over 46% from the field.
“It took us a while to get used to the defense,” Alford said. “We thought that was going to happen because their offense was so good, they made eight 3-pointers in the first half and only made three in the second half.”
Nevada shot 50% from the field and 40% from three-point range in the first half. Camper led by nine points on 4-of-7 shooting.
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second half
Nevada pulled away in the second half with a putback from Camper that pushed him into double digits. Murray State responded with a long field goal to keep the game going.
Nevada scored again in the paint and took a 47-41 lead just two minutes into the second half, forcing Murray State to call a timeout early. Nevada picked up the pace a bit, hitting 6 of 7 shots to take a seven-point lead.
Murray State missed all three of its first five shots of the second half, which helped as the Racers didn’t score from the free throw line until 12:35.
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Camper hit another floater and Nevada led by double digits, 60-50, in 14 minutes. During that stretch, Murray State went through a scoring drought for more than three minutes before hitting its first three points to cut the deficit to less than 10 points. Murray State drew a foul on a two-and-one but missed the free throw, giving Nevada a 64-55 lead after the media timeout in the 12th minute.
The Racers once again faced a scoring drought, and the Wolfpack took a 17-point lead and went on an 8-0 run. Murray State called a timeout, slowing down Nevada’s game for less than 10 minutes, and Nevada won 72-55. With four and a half minutes left, the Wolfpack pushed the score to 80 points on Lowery’s layup.
Nevada forced 15 turnovers from Murray State, while the Wolves only committed five. As a team, Nevada shot 51% from the field and 33% from three-point range. Wimes scored 23 points on 9-for-13 shooting to lead Nevada.
“them [Nevada] “At the end of the second half, they slapped us in the face,” Miller said. “It’s a credit to our guys and a credit to them all year that they fought until the end, but today, Nevada was better than us.”
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what’s next
Nevada advances to the second round of the NIT and will host another playoff game, this time against Liberty. The Flames won their first NIT game, beating George Mason University 77-71, and Alford said it will be another tough matchup for Lawler.
“It’s really nice to be free,” Alford said. “Should be an NCAA tournament team, they dominate Conference USA, I watched them play the other night and had a pretty convincing win on the road, so we know we have a really good basketball team coming in here on Saturday.
Reporting time is set for Saturday, March 21 at 6pm PST.
