Pack wins one for Lyndale

RENO " All of the Nevada Wolf Pack's freshmen, sophomore and juniors had a hand in Senior Night at Lawlor Events Center Thursday night.

The Wolf Pack, playing all 12 players on the roster for the first time in a Western Athletic Conference game this year, routed the San Jose Spartans, 89-66, in front of 7,147 fans.

The victory, which lifted the Pack to 18-11 overall and 10-5 in the WAC, turned out to be the perfect way to honor Lyndale Burleson, the only senior on the team playing his final regular season home game.

"We wanted to play well for 'Dale," said freshman Luke Babbitt, who scored 19 points. "This is a night he'll remember for a long while and we wanted to make it a good one for him."

"It was important to me, personally, to win this game for Lyndale," Pack coach Mark Fox said. "He's meant so much to our program. You are going to remember your Senior Night and I'm glad he'll remember his with a win."

Burleson scored six points and had three assists as the Pack won for the fifth time in its last six games.

"It was emotional at the start for everyone," said Burleson, who was honored at midcourt before the game with members of his family, including brother Nate, a former Wolf Pack football standout now with the Seattle Seahawks. "But once the game started we were able to put all that aside."

"A lot of times seniors don't play well on Senior Night because they are so emotional," said Fox, who upped his career record to 120-41. "Sometimes on Senior Night you are so emotional you come out flat. But, thankfully, he was able to control his emotions, probably better than everyone else."

Fox never let the Wolf Pack forget that the evening was meant to honor their only senior. San Jose State cut the Pack's lead to just 41-39 four minutes into the second half on a hook shot in the lane by C.J. Webster, prompting Fox to call a timeout.

"I grabbed Lyndale and told the rest of them, 'Are you guys going to let him down after all he's meant to our team?'," Fox said. "They got the message."

The Wolf Pack immediately went on a 19-5 run during the next five minutes to take control of the game.

"We wanted this for Lyndale," said sophomore Brandon Fields, who scored a team-high 20 points off the bench.

It was Burleson who keyed the early stages of the run, stealing the ball from San Jose's Justin Graham near midcourt and finishing off the play with a lay up off a feed from Babbitt. Babbitt scored seven of the 19 points in the run, including a three-point play to give the Pack a 55-44 lead. Joey Shaw then drained a 3-pointer to make the score 58-44 less than a minute later.

"I appreciate all of our fans and my teammates for what they did tonight," Burleson said.

All of Burleson's teammates played a role in the victory as Fox emptied his bench in the final five minutes. All but one of the Pack's 12 players scored at least two points. Richie Phillips, the only Pack player who didn't score, contributed four rebounds in 12 minutes.

"It was a good win," Fox said. "San Jose was playing well (the Spartans beat Idaho and Hawaii last week). We had a lot of things to play for and it was nice to get this win."

"This is the time when we want to start to peak," Babbitt said. "But we know we still have work to do."

The Pack led 39-31 at halftime despite 11 offensive rebounds by the Spartans, six by Webster. That caught Fox's attention in the halftime locker room.

"They were just reacting to the ball better than we were and we were soft in our block out," Fox said. "We really made it a point to rebound better in the second half."

The Pack ended up winning the rebounding battle, 41-36, but San Jose State did finish with 21 offensive rebounds. Webster, who finished with a game-high 22 points and 12 boards (eight offensive) did the bulk of the damage.

"We went to C.J. a lot," said San Jose State coach George Nessman of the Spartans' 6-foot-9, 255-pound junior. "He really delivered and he's done that many times for us so it's not surprising."

Nessman, though, was disappointed in his team's defense. The Pack shot 56 percent for the game, mainly on easy shots right on front of the basket. The Pack has now shot better than 50 percent from the field for two consecutive games (they were 26-of-51 last Saturday against Utah State) for the first time this season.

"Nevada did a great job attacking the basket," said Nessman, whose team fell to 13-15, 6-9. "They did a great job of running their interior screens and getting guys loose. But we didn't defend very well. We gave up too many easy scores."

The game finished up with a flurry of fouls (the Pack was 29-of-36 from the line) and substitutions (San Jose also played all 12 players on its roster).

"The flow was a little ugly in the second half, no question," Fox said.

There was nothing ugly, though, about sending Burleson home on Senior Night with a victory.

"He is just a beautiful, beautiful person," Fox said. "We're going to miss him."