The No. 21 Nevada Wolf Pack (7-1) will try to rebound following Saturday’s 58-49 home loss to UNLV when they welcome the Saint Mary’s (CA) Gaels into the Lawlor Events Center in Reno for a 10 p.m. ET tip-off. Prior to losing to UNLV, Nevada had won its first seven games, which marked the team’s best start in 55 years. Nevada will be looking to senior All-American forward Nick Fazekas to get the team back on track against the Gaels.
Saint Mary’s struggled in its previous game against Cal State Bakersfield having to overcome a 12-point deficit aided by double-double performance by Diamon Simpson, (19-points, 10 rebounds) to beat CSB 65-57 Saturday night. With that win the Gaels improved their record to 6-4.
Saint Mary’s holds a 50-32 advantage in the all-time series with Nevada. In the last meeting, Brett Collins scored a career-high 31 points to lead the Gaels to an 89-80 victory on Dec. 31, 2005 in Moraga, Calif. Marcelus Kemp scored 22 points and junior Nick Fazekas added 21 for Nevada, which had its 14-game road winning streak snapped in the loss.
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Under the direction of sixth-year head coach Randy Bennett (91-72 record at SMC), the Gaels returned four starters and 11 letter men from last year’s 17-12 team. Saint Mary’s finished in a tie for second in the West Coast Conference last season with an 8-6 mark.
Nevada is installed a double-digit favorite -10 with a total of 138 ½. The Wolf Pack , to put it mildly, stunk up the joint in its SU loss to UNLV never coming close to covering ATS the -9 ½ point chalk trailing by 20 early in the game and could never recuperate closing the gap to nine at the final buzzer. Previous to Saturday’s debacle the Wolf Pack were looking good covering 4-of-6 ATS with the OVER also cashing in 4-of-6 contests. The betting trends for Saint Mary’s were not available at the deadline time for this preview.
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