It was a strong defensive performance for the Nevada men’s basketball team, as the Wolf Pack finished their exhibition games with a 73-52 win over Eastern Washington. The Wolf Pack forced 23 turnovers and tallied 11 steals.
Nevada head coach Steve Alford played 13 out of his 14 players in the exhibition game, including 10 who played over 10 minutes.
Three players finished in double-figures scoring. Leading the way was transfer Vaughn Weems, as he tallied 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting, including a perfect 2 of 2 from the 3-point arc. Chuck Bailey III finished with 11 points, and Fresno State transfer Elijah Price had 10 points.
“It’s another game where I thought we had a lot of balanced scoring,” Alford said. “In our two exhibition games, we turned the first team over 18 and this team 23. Defensively, we have a chance to be really, really good, and I think the offense will come.”
Kaleb Lowery led the game with three steals, and three players had two.
Nevada had the edge in rebounds with 40 compared to Eastern Washington’s 30 (plus-10), with 18 of those coming on the offensive side. Joel Armotrading had the most individual rebounds for Nevada with 10.
“We didn’t have the best couple days offensively, practice-wise, so I think that carried over into this, but another low turnover game,” Alford said. “We had 10 at Utah and 11 tonight, so we’re taking care of the ball and we’re not beating ourselves. We had 18 offensive rebounds. That’s got to be our go-to, but a lot of good things.”
The Wolf Pack open their season on Tuesday, hosting the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs from Conference USA. The Wolf Pack placed seventh in the Mountain West Conference preseason poll and are longing for the start of the season.
“Overall, pretty pleased with the two exhibition games, and it gives us a lot to work on over the eight days going into our opener,” Alford said.
