San Jose State falls 80-68 to Nevada

It was a-l-m-o-s-t a tale of two halves but Dickens would have haltingly penned it something like this if he was covering the contest: "It was the worst of times, it was sort of the best of times...at moments..." as Nevada had it's way the initial 20 minutes and actually put the game away then owning a 42-23 halftime lead.

At the 11:57 mark, Nevada led 23-10. With 7:35 on the clock, San Jose State cut the deficit to 10 at 30-20. But with 3:20 remaining, it was back to 17 at 38-21.

In that opening period, the Wolf Pack's Joey Shaw -- entering the game 4-24 from three-point range in league play -- enjoyed a Shaw-shooting-redemption by nailing 4-5 from long distance. He had 16 points at the half and finished the game with 23 -- a career high. Nevada made two thirds of its shot attempts in the first 20 minutes.

A pair of treys from Robert Owens cut the deficit to 11 -- 46-35 -- at the 17 minute mark but Nevada refused to budge any further.

The Spartans weren't necessarily missing the huge offensive role Adrian Oliver usually plays -- he sat out the game with an ankle injury -- however it certainly was a factor. But it was more the defense again that did SJSU in the most as the Wolf Pack shot 33-53 -- 63% -- as a team.

For the game, Owens led the Spartans with 17 points, buoyed by 5-9 three-point shooting. C.J. Webster added 15 points.

Nevada managed a startling nine blocked shots and rebounding turned out to be about even -- 30 for the Pack and 28 for the Spartans, including 16 offensive boards.