BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal Nevada's Jermaine Washington goes up for a shot against SMU's Patrick Simpson and Justin Isham during the first half at Lawlor Events Center Thursday.
RENO - SMU coach Jimmy Tubbs calls Nick Fazekas "the quiet assassin."
The 6-foot-11 Fazekas quietly scored 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead Nevada to a 73-59 win over the Mustangs in a Western Athletic Conference basketball game Thursday night at Lawlor Events Center.
The win boosted Nevada's record to 15-5 overall and 8-2 in WAC play. The Wolf Pack moved into sole possession of first place after co-leader UTEP was upset by Tulsa.
"I feel like I score throughout the game," said Fazekas, who was 7 for 12 from the field and 8 for 10 from the line. "I don't score and 10 and then go quiet. I try to score throughout and give my team a chance to win."
And, he did a tremendous job of taking the shots within the offense.
"Funny what a haircut can do," Nevada coach Mark Fox joked. "I told him to get a haircut and he'd start scoring. Nick is going to be a great player. He's a good player now. We're trying to drive him to be a great player; to be an All-America candidate. He has a legitimate chance to be that. He has good numbers, but he can play better."
One of his biggest fans is Tubbs. The SMU coach loves Fazekas and frontcourt running mate Kevinn Pinkney, who scored 16 points and pulled down six rebounds. Basically he credited the two Wolf Pack stars for being the difference in the game.
"They have two really good players," Tubbs said. "They are two of the better players in all of basketball and they proved that tonight. I thought they played big tonight. Every time we'd get on a run, one of those guys would score."
That's exactly what you would expect from two starters off a NCAA Tournament team. Big players make big plays.
In its three home losses this year, the Wolf Pack managed to dig themselves a quick hole. Not this time.
Nevada snapped a 4-all tie with nine straight points, and when SMU started cutting into the lead, Nevada closed the half with an impressive 11-2 run over the final 5 minutes 29 seconds for a 36-22 advantage.
Fazekas scored 11 and grabbed six rebounds, but it was the play of Kyle Shiloh and Seth Taylor that was critical.
"We tried to come out the first five minutes and take the first punch," Pinkney said. "We came out real good and it showed in the end."
Shiloh, known more for his defense scored eight points in the first 11 minutes and dished out four assists. He finished with 11 points and six assists. He played the entire first half without a break, as freshman Ramon Sessions picked up two quick fouls.
Taylor added seven points, five coming in Nevada's last surge of the half. He knocked down a nice three-pointer with 1:08 left, stretching the Nevada lead to 15, its biggest of the half.
"Kyle played great defense (against Bryan Hopkins) and very good offense in the first half," Fox said. "Seth is a great shooter. The more and more experience he gets, the more confident he gets."
"Seth has done that quite a few times," added Fazekas. "He did that against Vegas and he hit a couple of big shots against Rice. He's a very good shooter."
Shiloh held Hopkins to eight in the first half, all of those coming in the final 10 minutes.
What impressed Fox about the first half is the patience the Wolf Pack showed offensively. It translated into a 52.2 percentage from the floor.
"We worked a lot on execution," Fox said. "Our offensive execution is not what it needs to be in the WAC; it's not where I want it to be."
Armed with a 14-point lead, the Wolf Pack got a little comfortable, especially at the defensive end. Eric Castro, who was held to six first-half points by Fazekas, scored 16 in the second half. He got good position on Fazekas and scored six quick points, cutting the lead to 42-30 with 15:48 left.
In a span of 73 seconds, Pinkney scored in the lane, Fazekas scored and Pinkney scored again on a fast-break dunk, pushing the lead to 18, 48-30, with 14:16 left. The lead stayed between 10 and 14 points over the next 12 minutes until a dunk and a deuce by Hopkins (20 points) and a three by Patrick Simpson helped the Mustangs trim the lead to 62-54 with 2:24 left.
Then it was Fazekas and Shiloh to the rescue.
Fazekas drained a lean-in shot with 1:59 left, and following an SMU turnover, Shiloh knocked down two foul shots to make it 66-54. Castro hit a single free throw, but Fazekas countered with a three-point play to make it 69-55, all but sealing the Mustangs' fate and giving the Wolf Pack a sweep of the series.
While Fox was happy with the win, he knows that his team wasn't exceptional. Nevada hit only 23 of 38 from the line and turned the ball over 18 times.
"It's a win," Fox said. "When we're perfect, we'll beat Illinois. They aren't on our schedule, and the only way we'll play them is for the national championship.
"We have a young team and we're far from perfect. Every night we have something we don't do as well. We played well enough to win."