BY DARRELL MOODY
Appeal Sports Writer
BOISE, IDAHO - Nevada showed its true grit Thursday night, and Boise State folded.
The Wolf Pack had their worst first half in nearly two months, but put together an amazing 31-9 run in the second half to wipe out a 15-point lead and upend the Broncos 67-57 in a Western Athletic Conference game at Taco Bell Arena.
The win keeps Nevada (17-5, 10-2) one game in front of UTEP (9-3, 19-5) heading into Saturday's showdown in El Paso.
"They have some toughness in them," coach Mark Fox said. "I'm proud of the kids for fighting through it.
"We were awful that first half. We were not aggressive. They beat us to every ball. They were much stronger and more physical."
The second half was so much better. Nevada got better shots, making 52 percent of them, and Boise State turned the ball over 11 times in the second half and shot a horrid 7 of 21 from the foul line.
And, Nevada played much better defense. To a man, Nevada players will tell you that. Boise State shot only 27.8 over the final 20 minutes.
"I think defense was the key to the game," senior center Kevinn Pinkney said. "We did a much better job in the second half. It won us the game."
Teammate Nick Fazekas agreed.
"You can't win without defense," said the 6-11 sophomore, who scored 27 points and hit 14 of 16 free throws. "I thought our defense stepped up."
Boise State's Tez Banks scored the first two buckets of the second half to give the Broncos a 37-22 lead with 17:26 left.
"They came out and hit their first two or three shots," Fox said. "I didn't think the lid was going to stay on our basket forever."
It didn't. Over the next 10 minutes, Nevada, especially Fazekas, freshman point guard Ramon Sessions and Kevinn Pinkney seemed to score at will. Fazekas had 14 of his 27, Sessions 17 of his career-high 23 and Pinkney, who was scoreless in the first half, added nine points.
Pinkney started the surge with a difficult reverse layup, and Fazekas scored seven of Nevada's next eight points, slicing the lead to 39-32. Jermaine Blackburn (12 points) stopped the bleeding with a basket, but Nevada went on an 18-2 run to take a 51-43 lead with 9:52 remaining.
Sessions, the baby-faced freshman, had seven to lead the way. He did an excellent job of splitting defenders and getting to the rim.
"He's very capable," Pinkney said. "He's extremely gifted. I don't think many people know he's a freshman. He doesn't play like one."
"He (Ramon) played well in the second half," Fox said. "I was upset with him in the first half."
Twice Boise State cut the lead to four points (56-52 and 58-54), but two missed free throws by Eric Lane and three straight turnovers hurt BSU in the end.
The Broncos started to foul with around 90 seconds left, but Sessions hit four straight foul shots and Jermaine Washington knocked down a pair.
As bad as Nevada played in the first half, the Wolf Pack stayed in the game thanks to Fazekas' 13 points.
Nevada shot 26 percent and turned the ball over eight times, and yet only trailed 33-22 at the break. It was Nevada's worst half since it scored only 20 against UC Davis back in December.
Part of the credit, according to Fox, goes to Boise's defensive plan of roughing up Fazekas.
Despite the deficit, Fox had his team out of the locker room barely five minutes into the half.
"I can only chew their butts for four minutes," Fox said.
It must have been a great four minutes because Nevada was a changed team in the second half.