Grades: Alford wills Pack to a tough road win

Grading the Nevada Wolf Pack’s 72-66 men’s basketball victory over the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors at Honolulu:

STARTERS

JAROD LUCAS: C +

Lucas led the Wolf Pack in scoring with 16 points but only two of those came in the final 15 minutes. His final two points on a mid-range jumper with three minutes left, though, gave the Pack an important 64-62 lead.

Lucas was 5-of-12 from the floor and 1-of-4 on threes. He did much of his damage, as has been the case often this year, from the free-throw line (5-of-5). He had half his points (eight) in the first six minutes on a jumper, 3-pointer and three free throws. The final 34 minutes of the game he scored just eight points on 3-of-10 shooting and 2-of-2 free throws.

Lucas had just two rebounds and a steal with no assists and a turnover. He was taken off the floor in the final 20 seconds for defensive reasons.

KENAN BLACKSHEAR: C

Blackshear kept shooting and shooting and also kept missing and missing. The 6-foot-6 point guard missed 13-of-18 shots, setting his career high (two years at Florida Atlantic, three at Nevada) for total misses in a game.

Blackshear finished with 12 points but ended up misfiring on 13 of his final 16 shots. The good news for Blackshear and the Pack, though, is he did score four crucial points on two free throws and a layup in the final 71 seconds to help secure the victory.

The other bit of good news, and maybe the biggest reason why the Pack won this game, is that Blackshear did not turn the ball over once in his 34 minutes while handing out four assists.

Blackshear was on the bench for four minutes early in the second half when the Pack turned a slim 41-40 lead into a 50-43 advantage with 12:48 to go. He then missed four shots in a row later in the half as Hawaii eventually pulled into a 62-62 tie with 3:36 to go.

NICK DAVIDSON: A

Davidson gave the Wolf Pack an efficient, timely and productive 29 minutes with 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting, seven rebounds, four assists, two blocks and a steal.

All four of his assists came in the game’s first 12-plus minutes. Those assists led to half (11) of the Pack’s first 22 points. Davidson also had two offensive rebounds that led to his two dunks and leads of 24-23 with seven minutes left in the first half and 38-37 a minute into the second half.

His 3-point play (on a dunk and free throw) and layup less than two minutes apart gave the Pack a 57-51 lead with just under 10 minutes to play. His steal, leading to two free throws by K.J. Hymes, gave the Pack a 66-63 lead with just under two minutes to play.

TRE COLEMAN: C

Coleman, like many of his teammates, had a scattered, uneven, positive and negative performance. He scored 10 points on 4-of-10 shooting (1-of-5 on threes), five rebounds, two steals and a block to go along with four fouls and no assists or turnovers in 23 rollercoaster minutes.

It was just the fourth time in Coleman’s four-year, 100-game career that he attempted at least 10 shots in a game. The last two games he has seemingly tried to turn into a 3-point shooter, but he’s gone just 3-of-11 and is now just 6-of-24 from beyond the arc this year.

Coleman’s only successful 3-pointer on Sunday came just 68 seconds into the game. It was also his only three points in the first half.

He had two layups and a free throws in a span of just 67 seconds in the second half for a 50-42 lead with 13:14 to play. His final two points came on a layup for a 61-59 lead with 4:41 to go.

Mor Sec, a 7-foot-1 Hawaii sophomore, though, blocked a Coleman layup with 20 seconds to play.

K.J. HYMES: B

Hymes contributed to the victory with 10 points, five rebounds and a block in his 19 minutes. The 7-foot center was also 6-of-9 from the free-throw line (3-of-4 in the final four minutes).

He had a 3-point play and another free throw 36 seconds apart for a 28-27 lead with 5:15 left in the first half. He also had a 3-point play for a 41-38 lead two minutes into the second half. His block and subsequent rebound led to a Tre Coleman layup and a 61-59 lead with 4:41 to go.

BENCH

HUNTER McINTOSH: C

McIntosh had a very passive 19 minutes with just two points and two rebounds. His two points (on two free throws), though, helped put the game away, giving the Pack a 70-66 lead with 10 seconds to play.

McIntosh missed all three of his shots (two threes). The Pack outscored Hawaii 28-24 during McIntosh’s time on the floor.

McIntosh, a 6-2 guard, has now played 80 minutes over his last four games and has not handed out a single assist. He had eight assists over the Pack’s first four games (80 minutes) and has two assists over his last six games and 113 minutes.

DANIEL FOSTER: C

Foster turned in the defensive play of the game with a steal with 10 seconds to play, leading to a pair of Hunter McIntosh free throws.

The 6-6 fourth-year utility man played 19 minutes, scored four points and had five rebounds. He made both of his shots on a layup three minutes into the game and a dunk with four minutes left in the first half.

Hawaii, though, did outscore the Pack, 43-35, when Foster was on the floor. When Foster was on the bench, Hawaii scored just 23 points in 21 minutes.

TYLER ROLISON: A

The 6-foot freshman from Los Angeles helped the Wolf Pack stabilize the game in his 16 minutes, scoring seven points on 3-of-4 shooting with a block, steal and rebound.

The Pack outscored Hawaii 30-21 when Rolison was on the floor.

Rolison hit a 3-pointer to cut Hawaii’s lead to 23-22 with 8:31 left in the first half. He also had a steal and layup to cut Hawaii’s lead to 23-19 with 11:19 to play in the first half and another layup for a 55-49 lead with 10:24 to play in the game.

Rolison has been an efficient source of offense off the bench over the last three games with 22 points on 8-of-13 shooting and six assists over 49 combined minutes. He’s also now 7-of-13 on threes for the season.

JAZZ GARDNER, JERIAH COLEMAN, AMIRE ROBINSON: Incomplete

Gardner and Coleman played three minutes each and Robinson had two minutes. All three of them were called for a foul and Gardner had a turnover. Robinson had a rebound.

The Pack bench, it seems, has been reduced to just Foster, Rolison and McIntosh.

COACHING: A

Steve Alford and his staff might be the only reason the Pack won this game.

Nobody on the Pack played all that well and nobody really took over the game and dragged his teammates over the finish line.

But Alford’s steady influence pushed this Pack team over the line against a competitive team (Hawaii was 7-1) on the road in a difficult place to play after a strange late Sunday night tip-off.

Alford is coaching this team very differently than he coached his first four Pack teams. He doesn’t have a red-hot scorer to simply give the ball to down the stretch on most nights this year unlike the past with Jalen Harris, Grant Sherfield, Dez Cambridge, Will Baker or even last year with Kenan Blackshear.

This year the Pack shooters have, for the most part, been flat and have struggled through games to score points. The Pack, for example, has had a player score 20 or more points in a game just five times all season in 10 games (none in the last three games). Sunday night was the fourth times this year the Pack won a game without a 20-point scorer.

Alford is stealing victories so far this year with a team that simply shares the ball, gets to the free-throw line and makes things difficult for opponents on the defensive end (more often than not).

It’s not overly entertaining to watch but the Pack is 9-1.

OVERALL: B

Victories at Hawaii should never be taken for granted by the Wolf Pack, no matter how ugly. The Pack, after all, lost its first seven games at Hawaii from 1946-2005 (and is now 7-11 on the island).

Hawaii, of the Big West Conference, had not lost a game at home before Sunday night since late last February, winning six in a row (five this year).

But don’t get too excited. Hawaii’s five home wins this year were against Hilo, Niagara, Northern Arizona, Central Arkansas and Hawaii Pacific.

So, the Pack didn’t exactly stun the college basketball world on Sunday night.

The Pack squeezed out this victory because it was 22-of-45 on shots inside the 3-point circle and had its most efficient performance (19-of-23, .826) from the free-throw line this season. And, oh yeah, Hawaii turned the ball over a dozen times.

When Hawaii wasn’t turning the ball over or getting fouled by the Pack it was putting up just 47 shots, the fewest by a Pack opponent this year. Hawaii also missed 5-of-10 free throws in the final 8:22, opening the door for the Pack. The Pack missed 11-of-14 threes, but Hawaii missed 14-of-17 (and 9-of-36 free throws).

But this is how you get to 22-plus wins in the regular season and consideration for a NCAA Tournament bid. You win ugly games on the road when you just as easily could have lost.