RENO - Twenty wins is the benchmark for all good college basketball programs, and for the third straight year, Nevada has shown that it is one of the top programs in the country.
Nevada, behind 24 points and 14 rebounds by Nick Fazekas and 22 points by Kyle Shiloh, reached the 20-win plateau with its impressive 88-61 victory over Akron in the eBay Bracket Buster game Friday night at Lawlor Events Center.
The win, Nevada's season-best seventh straight, was the biggest in terms of point differential this season. Nevada, 20-5, beat UC Davis and Idaho each by 26 points. The loss was the worst of the year for Akron, which fell to 19-6.
"That's three for the program," said Nevada coach Mark Fox, who is the only coach in Nevada history to have two 20-win seasons out of the school's eight. "It's a compliment to the players. They should get all the credit. It shows their commitment."
"It's a great feeling," Fazekas said. "To be a part of something that has been a great tradition here and just for us to do it three straight years. Each year there have been doubters. It's nice to prove people wrong. It's something I dreamed about when I was coming out of high school."
What was billed as a close game turned into a rout early. Nevada defended well, took advantage of its height advantage at both ends of the floor and drained a season-best 12 3-pointers and shot 53.2 percent from the field.
"We wanted to be aggressive offensively," Fox said. "Looking back at the last two (Bracket Buster) games on film, we would feel out the other team. We made a point to go out and be aggressive. We defended well and shot the basketball.
"They're a very good basketball team. They're going to win 20 games and they have a chance to win their league. It was a quality win for us."
Nevada shot and defended better than Akron coach Keith Dambrot thought it would, at least from what he'd seen on film.
"We were fair and they were good," Dambrot said. "They played well. They shot it better than I've seen them shoot it. They beat us physically at every position.
"I was surprised how tough they were at the guard spot. I think they knew they had to guard us."
It was that defense that enabled Nevada to go on a 17-2 run over a span of 4 minutes 11 seconds midway through the first half to turn a 17-15 game into a 34-17 game with 6:17 left.
"It was defense," said Shiloh, who tied his career high in points and 3-pointers. "We were getting a lot of stops."
"Their strength (defense) is our weakness," Dambrot said. "We're not physically strong enough or long enough. We get away with it in our league. We had a hard time with their physicalness. We couldn't play inside out (against Nevada)."
Ramon Sessions, who dished out six first-half assists en route to a career-high 13, started the surge with a layup and Mo Charlo (14 points), whose play was off for a couple of weeks, knocked down a 3-pointer. Fazekas, who scored 15 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in the first 20 minutes, scored on a layup to make it 24-15.
Akron called timeout, and Matt Futch scored on a layup, but Nevada roared back with 10 straight points.
Shiloh, who went 3-for-4 in the first half from 3-point range, knocked down a trey and Sessions followed with two free throws. Charlo scored on a putback and then drained a triple for the 17-point lead.
Akron whittled the lead to 40-29 thanks to a 3-pointer by Nate Linhart, but a 3-pointer by Shiloh, a free throw by Charlo, a close-range shot by Fazekas and a tip-in by Shiloh gave the Pack a 48-31 lead at the half.
Shiloh, as is his custom, shrugged off his shooting.
"I had a lot of open shots," he said. "A lot of guys probably hit those shots."
Had Nevada not been outrebounded 20-19 in the first half, it could have been its best half of basketball of the season.
"I think we have played better at times," Fox said.
"We tried to defend the best we can," Fazekas said. "We put them out early. That was the goal."
And, a lot of that was because Akron didn't collapse as much on Fazekas as other teams have, and the Zips played some zone. Nevada did a good job executing against both.
Fazekas was like a kid in the candy store, going 5-for-11 from the floor and 4-for-4 from the line in the opening half. He was 9-for-16 overall from the floor, including 2-for-5 from 3-point range. Had it not been for a couple of tough rolls, his percentage would have been much higher.
"When I don't see a double-team I have a big smile on my face," Fazekas said. "I know it will be a long night for the other team."
Nevada started the second half with seven quick points, as Sessions scored on a layup, Marcelus Kemp (11 points) knocked in a 3-pointer and Fazekas scored on a layup for a 55-31 lead.
Nevada went on a five-minute scoring drought, enabling Akron to slice the deficit to 16, 64-48, with 10:53 left in the game. Guard Nick Dials hit a jump shot and 3-pointer, and the Zips' leading scorer Romeo Travis (13 points) added a putback.
Kemp kick-started the offense with his second 3-pointer of the night, Chad Bell added a nice drive to the basket and Demarshay Johnson took a nice pass from Sessions and finished at the rim to get the lead back up to 23 at 71-48.
A 3-pointer by Shiloh and a layup by Kemp gave Nevada its biggest lead of the night, 83-56, with 3:17 remaining.
Another impressive stat was Nevada's 22 assists on 33 baskets. The Pack showed good court vision and patience against Akron's attempt at a zone defense.
"We're starting to be a more confident offensive team," Fox said. "The last three weeks we have more confidence offensively.
"We anticipated that they would play a little more zone. Nick is a difficult guard. We practiced for it pretty well. I thought we got some open looks. Kyle hit some big 3s."