Nevada Basketball: Wolf Pack let lead slip away in loss to Aztecs

At the 6:14 mark of the second half, the Nevada Wolf Pack led the San Diego State Aztecs 51-44 after Tyron Criswell scored on a layup. From that point, the Aztecs went on an 8-0 scoring run to take a 52-51 lead which was their first lead since leading 22-21 in the first half. Later on, Tyler Kell hit a three pointer to give the Aztecs a 55-51 lead that the Wolf Pack could not come back from. The combination of poor offensive execution and missed free throws doomed Nevada as they fell to the Aztecs 57-54. The loss drops the Wolf Pack to 12-8 and 4-4 in the Mountain West while the Aztecs improve to 15-6 and 8-0 in the Mountain West.

Nevada had their best defensive performance of the season as they held San Diego State to 29 percent shooting from the field. But Nevada barley shot over 29 percent from the field and struggled from the free throw line going 11 for 19 from the charity stripe. The Aztecs actually won the game from the line as they went 24 for 32 from the line and took 13 more free throw attempts than Nevada. "We absolutely let it slip away," said Wolf Pack guard D.J. Fenner (seven points, five rebounds) "We had control of the game the whole game until the end and we gave it away."

For Nevada, Marqueze Coleman led the team with 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds while Cameron Oliver scored nine points, grabbed seven rebounds and blocked four shots. The Aztecs leading scorer was sophomore guard Trey Kell as he scored 17 points and grabbed ten rebounds. Also contributing for the Aztecs were forwards Winston Shepard and Zylan Cheatham as they both scored 11 points.

Nevada must get better and consistent on offense if they are going to compete with the best teams in the conference and if they don't, then it will be a struggle to score just like tonight when Nevada's offense disappeared in the final six minutes of the game. Nevada has four days to find an offensive groove as their next game is on Saturday as they hit the road to face Utah State.