RENO - The national television spotlight shined on Nevada Saturday, and as he has a tendency to do, Wolf Pack sophomore Nick Fazekas had a huge game.
In three past appearances on ESPN2, Fazekas had scored 69 points and grabbed 38 rebounds. He was even better this time.
Fazekas scored 31 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, and Nevada played superb second-half defense en route to a 74-64 win over Vermont on Bracket Buster Saturday at Lawlor Events Center before a crowd of 8,522.
The win gives Nevada a 20-5 record, and it's the first time in school history that the Wolf Pack has put together back-to-back 20-win seasons. Vermont fell to 19-5 overall.
"I felt like I could score because there were no double-teams today," said Fazekas, who came within two points of his career high of 33. "They were playing me straight up; one on one. For me, I'm over there drooling at that. All WAC season, I've been seeing double-teams. I felt like I could do anything.
"Everybody was putting a big emphasis on the game in terms of the NCAA Tournament. Vermont has a high RPI, and this was a game we needed to win."
And, the Pack did it because of Fazekas' scoring, its defense on Vermont's lightning-quick T.J. Sorrentine in the final 20 minutes and putting together an 11-4 run late in the second half to open an eight-point lead.
Fazekas started the second surge with a tip-in of his own miss, and freshman Ramon Sessions, who came up big with 16 points and one turnover in 35 minutes, hit a pull-up jump shot to extend the lead to 55-50. Josh Duell cut the lead to 55-52 with an uncontested lay-up, but Jermaine Washington scored on a lay-up and Kevinn Pinkney added a free throw to make it 58-52 with 8:33 left. Mo Charlo, who scored all eight of his points in the second half, scored a bucket to complete the surge.
Vermont cut it to four again, 62-58, but Nevada scored five of the next seven points on a free throw by Washington and a putback and two free throws by Fazekas, to make it 67-60. Vermont's Martin Klimes was no match for the rangy Nevada standout, who was 10 for 21 from the floor.
Fox said he was surprised regarding Vermont's defensive strategy of putting the 6-foot-8 Klimes on Fazekas.
"They put their smaller post on him, and put (Taylor) Coppenrath on Kevinn (Pinkney) and (Chad) Bell. You can't do that. I was very surprised. Coppenrath is their leading scorer, and they didn't want him to get in foul trouble."
Sessions' play was remarkabale, considering he had a 101-degree fever and didn't practice on Thursday. His 10 second-half points were critical.
"Not only is Nevada big and strong, but they know how to play," Vermont coach Tom Brennan said. "I think they just wore us down a little bit and they caused us to make mistakes. Against a team like that, you can't turn it over in key situations and you've got to make big shots, and we didn't do that quite enough."
While Fazekas played his usual major role in the win, Nevada's second-half defense deserves accolades as well.
Sorrentine, who scored 15 first-half points, managed only seven in the second half thanks to the blue-collar efforts of Kyle Shiloh and Charlo. Nevada's defense, which allowed Vermont to hit 7 for 13 from beyond the three-point arc, held the Catamounts to 1 for 14 in the second half. Nevada held Vermont to 38 percent from the floor in the final 20 minutes.
"They had seven three-pointers at halftime, so we talked about defending the three-point line," Nevada coach Mark Fox said. "Kyle Shiloh deserves an unbelievable amount of credit as does Mo Charlo. I felt like our defense was a big part of their misses.
"In the first half, he dictated things. In the second half, we dictated."
Sorrentine took Shiloh off the dribble early, scoring eight of Vermont's first 10 points and a 10-7 lead, and that's when Charlo was brought in.
Fazekas and Sessions helped Nevada stay close over the final 10 minutes of the half. The Pack never led in that span, but six straight points by Fazekas and a buzzer-beating lay-up by Sessions cut Vermont's lead to 38-34 at the half.
Nevada gained momentum with a 13-4 run at the outset of the second half to take a 47-42 lead, one it would never relinquish. Vermont missed its first shot from the floor, and then turned the ball over without a shot on its next two possessions. Sessions had six in that surge and Fazekas added five. One of Sessions' baskets came off a block by Washington.
"They did a great job of really pressuring us," Brennan said. "They really got in our snoot right after the first half. The first four possessions we had three turnovers and an airball. It really set the tone for the second half.
"Losing to the first-place WAC team on the road is nothing to be ashamed of. Nevada is a very, very good team. Somebody told me they weren't a great team, but very opportunistic."
Darrell Moody can be reached at dmoody@nevadaappeal.com, or by calling 881-1281