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Winners Of Four In Row Nevada Hosts Yale Friday
Dec. 26, 2012 Yale at Nevada: Nevada (8-4) hosts Yale (4-7) in the final game of a four-game homestand on Friday. The Wolf Pack has won a season-high four in a row including the last three at home. Yale has won three of its last five games including a double overtime victory over Army on Nov. 24. Friday, 7:05 p.m. PT TELEVISION: None. YALE BULLDOGS: Yale is led head coach James Jones who is in his 14th season directing the Bulldog basketball program. Jones is 180-198 at Yale. The 4-7 Bulldogs are led by Reno High School product Austin Morgan. The 5-11 senior is averaging 12.4 points and 2.5 assists per game. He is shooting 35.6 from the field and 33.3 from behind the arc. Justin Sears, a 6-8 freshman forward tops Yale in rebounding at 6.4 per game and is second in scoring at 11.4 points per game. Sears is making 54.5 percent of his shots from the floor. The Bulldogs average 64 points per game and allow 66.1. They are shooting 41.3 percent and opponents 43.4. From behind the three-point arc Yale is making 31.4 percent of its opportunities and opponents 35.1. On the glass they are outrebounding their opponents 35.7-33. Nevada (8-4) shot an even 50 percent from the floor in the game and never trailed at any point. Malik Story had 14 points, Devonte Elliott had 13, Marqueze Coleman scored 11 and Cole Huff chipped in with 10. The Wolf Pack jumped out to a 19-5 lead to begin the contest capped off by Evans' dunk with 13:03 remaining in the half. Cal State San Marcos (10-5) cut the lead to two at 37-35 by halftime but watched Nevada retake the momentum with a 35-17 run to begin the second half. Adam Eakles led the Cougars, an NAIA program, with 18 points while Danny Redmon, Ryan Emanuel and Hakeem Washington each scored 12 points. Starters Malik Story and Cole Huff scored 14 and 10 points respectively. Junior forward Devonte Elliott tied his career-high with 13 points. Elliott scored 13 points for the first time earlier this season at Marshall. It was his fourth double figure scoring game of the season. Freshman point guard Marqueze Coleman also tied his career-high with 11 points off the bench. Coleman first 11-point game was against Green Bay in November. At Washington the Pack held the Huskies to 39.7 percent shooting. Cal Poly shot 32.8 percent against the Pack which is the low by an opponent this season. San Francisco shot 34 percent before CSUSM ended the streak. In the first game of the season UC Irvine shot 39.4 percent giving the Pack four games of holding opponents under 40 percent shooting this season. In back-to-back games Nevada held opponents to season low point totals. Cal Poly scored 56 points which was the low for a Pack opponent until USF finished with 51 the next game. Evans had started 56 consecutive games but was averaging 5.3 points and 3.4 rebounds in the first seven games. His high point total was nine and he was shooting just 35.9 percent. In the last five games he is shooting 57.1 percent from the field. In those five games he is scoring 11.2 points per game and grabbing 7.4 rebounds per contest. In his first game off the bench he scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds at Pacific. Against Cal Poly he finished with a career-high 14 rebounds which is tied for the fifth best total in the MW this season. In the Pack's 84-74 victory over Cal State University San Marcos he tied for game-high honors with 18 points which is season-high and one point off his career-high of 19 set against San Jose State last season. The lineup change has benefited Burris as his production has increased since being inserted in the starting lineup. In the first seven games of the season he averaged 6.0 points and 2.9 rebounds. He made his first start this season at Pacific with his previous start coming his freshman year on Dec. 11, 2010 versus San Francisco State. At Pacific he responded with 14 points and a career-high nine rebounds. The 14 points is one off his career high of 15 set his freshman year versus Pepperdine. Starting the last five games he is averaging 9.6 points and 5.6 rebounds. He scored 13 points versus Cal Poly and followed that with 11 against San Francisco marking his first back-to-back double digit scoring games. In his five starts he has scored in double figures three times. Coming into this year he scored in double figures twice, once as a freshman and sophomore. He is shooting 46.2 percent from the field and has five blocks in the last five games. The Pack defeated Cal Poly (69-56), San Francisco (59-51) and Cal State University San Marcos (84-74) in the first three games. After 79 consecutive games starting in the Nevada backcourt the duo are separated by eight points. Burton ranks 17th in school history with 1,156 points and Story is 18th with 1,148. Ken "Tree" Green (1981-83) is 56 in front of Burton with 1,212 points. Mr. clutch has come through three times this season in front of the home faithful. In the World Vision Classic with Nevada trailing CS Fullerton 77-75 on Nov. 16, he drove the lane, scored and converted the free throw after being fouled to put the Pack up 78-77 with 14 seconds to play. It was not all offensive as he blocked a potential game winning layup at the other end of the court then sealed the victory with two more free throws to give him the last five points in a 80-77 Pack victory. He delivered the next night against Green Bay hitting a game-winning three-pointer from deep behind the arc with 2 seconds on the clock to give the Pack the 71-69 victory over the Phoenix. This coming after GB had just gone ahead 69-68 on a three-pointer. Burton's three-pointer gave him exactly 1,000 career points in the Silver & Blue. His most recent game winner came versus UC Davis on Nov. 28 as he hit a jumper in the lane with 3 seconds on the clock to give Nevada an 84-83 victory over the Aggies. He finished with a game-high 26 points. Video link to Burton's shots vs. Green Bay and UC Davis - EXPLOSIVE BACKCOURT: Nevada's backcourt duo of Deonte Burton and Malik Story has started all 79 games in their Wolf Pack careers. They are responsible for 44.2 percent of the Pack's offense production this season. Burton is averaging 16.8 points per game and Story 15.8. They rank fifth and seventh respectively in the MW in scoring. Burton is fifth in the MW shooting 48 percent from the field and Story is 10th at 41.6 percent. Burton scored in double figures in eight consecutive games until finishing with four against Cal Poly and had four in the Cal State University San Marcos game. It was his lowest scoring game since Cal State Bakersfield last season. In the eight game stretch he averaged 21.5 points per game. In back-to-back games he scored 28 at Marshall and 26 versus UC Davis. In the last five games of the eight game streak he scored 25 or more points four times including a season and team season-high 29 in the Pack's 76-73 victory at Washington. Story also has four 20 plus point games on the season. In the seven games prior to scoring seven points versus San Francisco he reached double figures and scored 138 points an average of 19.7 points per game. He had back-to-back 25 point games versus Southern Utah and at Marshall then followed that with 23 at home against UC Davis and 19 in the Drake game. He has been on fire from behind the arc the last nine games making 26 of his last 65 (40%) attempts. On the season he is making 36.7 percent of his three-pointers and his 2.42 made per game ranks fourth in the MW. The duo combined to score 53 of Nevada's 82 points at Marshall, 49 of the Pack's 84 points versus UCD, 31-of-66 against Drake, 37-of-72 at Pacific and 44-of-76 at Washington. In nine-of-12 games this season one of the two has posted a game high in points. Burton has six game highs to his credit and Story three. In the preseason MW media poll Nevada was picked to finish fifth. San Diego State, UNLV, New Mexico and Colorado State placed ahead of the Wolf Pack. The Pack left the WAC in style winning its sixth regular season title in 12 years in the league. Nevada went 13-1 in WAC play last season. Nevada is 4-1 since making the change at Pacific and 4-0 with the current starting five. At Washington Panzer replaced Elliott in the starting lineup. Elliott was productive off the bench scoring 11 points against the Huskies. The lineup has remained the same the last four games. The start at Pacific for Burris was his first start since Dec. 11, 2010 versus San Francisco State. The 6-7 Bakersfield, Calif. native responded with 14 points and a career and game-high nine rebounds. The 14 points is one off his career high of 15 set versus Pepperdine (11/6/10) his freshman year. Evans has been very productive off the bench scoring a season-high 13 points at Pacific. In the last four games he has eight, eight, nine and a season-high 18 points against Cal State University San Marcos. The 18 points in the CSUSM game tied for game-high honors. Huff finished with four points and three rebounds at Pacific and played a season-high 31 minutes at Washington. Since splitting the starting position at the five spot the two have combined to average 11 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. As a duo they are shooting 50 (21-of-42) percent from the field and 68.8 (11-of-16) percent at the free throw line. Panzer is scoring 5.0 points and grabbing 5.2 rebounds per game in the last five contests while Elliott is averaging 6.0 points and 4.0 rebounds per outing. Twice Elliott has scored in double figures off the bench in the last five games, 11 at Washington and he tied his career-high with 13 versus Cal State University San Marcos. Four times this season Elliott has scored in double figures after not reaching double digits his first two seasons in the Silver & Blue. He scored 10 points against Green Bay and topped with a 13 point outing at Marshall. Coming off the bench for the first time this season at Washington he scored 11 points then tied his career-high with 13 points in the CSUSM victory to give him four double figure scoring games in the Silver & Blue. In the Green Bay contest he played a career-high 30 minutes. From the field he is shooting 57.4 (31-of-54) percent. For the season he averaging 6.6 points per game and is tied for fourth in rebounding at 4.0 per contest. Panzer posted his career-high of 18 points in the Pack's 80-77 victory over Cal State Fullerton (11/16/12) in the first game of the World Vision Classic. The 6-9 forward made six-of-10 shots from the field which included two-of-three from behind the arc. He was also solid at the free throw line making four of his five attempts. On the season he is averaging 5.8 points per game and is third on the team with 4.6 rebounds per game. Point guard, Marqueze Coleman is scoring 4.1 points in 10.6 minutes per game. He reached double figures for the first time against Green Bay scoring 11 points in 13 minutes on the floor. He equaled his 11-point outing in the CSUSM game. Ali Fall, a 6-9, 250-pound forward has seen action in 11 games and is scoring 1.5 points and grabbing 1.9 rebounds per game in 9.3 minutes per contest. Against Southern Utah he scored in double figures for the first time finishing with 10 points and had five rebounds. Story has made 199 career three-pointers which is third most in school history. Next on the list is Terrance Green's (1999-03) 209 made in 119 games played. In 79 games Story has attempted 502 shots from behind the arc which is third most at Nevada. Green is second with 592 attempts in his four seasons and 119 games played. Story has been successful on 39.6 (199-of-502) percent of his three-point attempts which is ninth at Nevada. Last season Story attempted a Pack single season record 226 three-pointers and made 94 for a percentage of 41.6. The 41.6 percent ranked 24th in NCAA I and his 2.69 made per game was 37th. The 94 three-pointers made a year ago are second most in Pack history behind Jimmy Carroll's (1996-97) 96. As a sophomore he made 76 three-pointers which is the fourth best season in Pack history. See page six of this release for Nevada's three-point records. Jerry Evans, Jr. has added punch off the bench the last five games after starting 56 in a row. Evans has come off the bench the last five games and is scoring 11.2 points and grabbing 7.4 rebounds per game. Twice he has scored in double figures off the bench with the last being a season-high 18 against Cal State University San Marcos. The 18 points led the Pack and tied for game-high honors. Cole Huff averaged 7.4 points off the bench but was moved to the starting lineup the last five games. Twice he scored 11 points off the bench this season versus Cal State Fullerton and Southern Utah. Jordan Burris was averaging 6 points off the bench but has also started the last five games. Burris scored 11 points off the bench against UC Davis. In the Pack's game at Washington, Devonte Elliott came off the bench for the first time this season and scored 11 points. Elliott tied his career-high with 13 points off the bench against CSUSM. He is averaging 7.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in his four games off the bench. Marqueze Coleman (4.1) and Ali Fall (1.5) have been productive off the Pack bench in the early season. Coleman scored 11 points against Green Bay and CSUSM. Fall totaled 10 versus Southern Utah. The 70 wins is the ninth most wins by a Pack head coach in school history. Trent Johnson (1999-04) is eighth with his 79-74 mark. Carter was Johnson's assistant all five seasons that he led the Pack basketball program. Page seven of this release has a list of Nevada's coach records.
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