Nevada Ends Regular Season with 74-59 Win Over Air Force
· Yahoo Sports
You always want to pick up a win on Senior Night, where Nevada honored five of them in Tayshawn Comer, Kaleb Lowery, Joel Armotrading, Corey Camper Jr. and Jeriah Coleman. The Wolf Pack gave them and the fans a much-needed win over Air Force 74-59, a team that didn’t win a single conference game.
It wasn’t a great night from beyond the arc for either side, but Nevada’s defense held its own and ended the regular season on a high note.
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Scoring Summary
1st Half
Air Force 25 – Nevada 32
2nd Half
Air Force 34 – Nevada 42
Final: Air Force 59, Nevada 74
First Half
Nevada got out to a 5-0 lead off a layup by Elijah Price and a three from Kaleb Lowery. Price attacked the paint again and made it 7-0 Wolf Pack after two minutes. Tayshawn Comer joined the party and Air Force took a timeout after three minutes with a 12-0 Nevada lead.
The Falcons got their first points of the game after the timeout with a three to cut it to a nine-point game. Air Force missed its next five three-point attempts but picked up five steals to put Nevada’s scoring at a slow pace. It forced a scoring drought of over two minutes until Price hit two free throws.
Despite the free throws, Nevada was without a field goal for over four minutes until Corey Camper Jr. threw it up for two to make it a 28-21 game with three minutes left in the half.
The Falcons cut it to a five-point deficit with under a minute to go, but Vaughn Weems scored in the paint to bring that to seven. Heading into halftime, Nevada shot 43 percent from the field but went just 2-9 from beyond the arc. Air Force shot 39 percent from the field and went 1-7 from three. Camper and Price led the first half with six points each.
Second Half
Air Force began the second half scoring with a free throw, but Nevada responded with nine points to give a 41-26 lead within the first three minutes. Nevada continued to score via the free-throw line but once again hit a scoring drought from the floor, this time lasting over three minutes.
Nevada kept the attack strong despite the lack of three-pointers, scoring 40 of its 74 points within the paint. It was the same case for Air Force, which scored 46 of its 59 points inside the paint as well.
The Falcons made small dents, but Nevada kept the lead as high as 20 points for most of the half. Camper continued to chip away in the paint, finishing the night with 18 points on 7-17 shooting. Three other Nevada players (Price 13, Comer 11 and Weems 10) finished with double digits.
Air Force also had four players reach double-digit scoring, with guard Kam Sanders leading the team with 14. The Falcons ended the night shooting 25-51 from the field and 2-12 from three.
Nevada went 27-56 from the field and 4-18 from deep while also shooting 16-20 from the free-throw line. The Wolf Pack also won the rebound battle 41-22 and held the lead throughout the entire game.
What’s Next
Nevada will head to Las Vegas for the 2026 Mountain West Tournament. The Pack will be the No. 5 seed and will rematch Air Force as the No. 12 seed. Nevada finishes the regular season with a 20-11 record and 12-8 in conference play.
“It’n not like it hasn’t happened in college basketball,” Steve Alford said about facing the same team back-to-back. “We’re deep, we played 12-13 guys again tonight, and we’ve beaten Air Force now twice, one game we took away the paint and one game we took away the three.”
Tip-off is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 11, at the Thomas & Mack Center.