by RENO, Nev. – A monster fourth quarter by the Nevada women’s basketball team lifted the Wolf Pack to an 88-65 win Saturday afternoon at Lawlor Events Center.
Today marked the team’s annual Play4Kay pink game and Nevada has now won three of its last four pink games. The Wolf Pack (9-14, 3-9 MW) outscored the Aztecs (8-15, 3-9 MW) 32-20 in the fourth quarter, led by 23 points in the period by senior Stephanie Schmid. Schmid finished with a game-high 29 points on 9-of-12 shooting, including five three-pointers. In the third quarter she recorded the 600th point of her Wolf Pack career.
Nevada’s 88 points is the third-most points scored this season and is the most scored in a conference game. The Pack’s 23-point margin of victory is its second-best this year. For the game, Nevada connected on 50.8 percent (30-of-59) of its shots, including an impressive 84.6 percent (11-of-13) in the fourth quarter.
Including Schmid’s performance, the Pack had five players score in double figures for the first time since the season opener. Sophomore Terae Briggs (Crow Tribe) posted her fourth double-double of the year with 14 points and 11 rebounds and added a career-best four assists. Junior Teige Zeller was a force to be reckoned with on the offensive boards as she grabbed five and finished with eight total rebounds and scored a season-high 14 points. Zeller was also 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Fellow junior Halie Bergman chipped in 13 points and sophomore Riana Everidge notched her 16th game in double figures this season with 11 points.
The Wolf Pack led the game from start to finish and held the Aztecs to 41 percent (23-of-56) shooting for the game and held them to 27.8 percent (5-of-18) from beyond the arc. Nevada’s defense forced the opposition into 18 turnovers and turned those into 22 points. The Pack also finished the game with a positive assist to turnover ratio dishing out 17 assists to its 15 turnovers.
Nevada led SDSU by as many as 15 with five to play in the game when back-to-back turnovers by the Wolf Pack cut the lead down to just seven. From there though the home team quickly stretched its lead back out to double digits and used a three-pointer from Schmid with 1:17 left to make it a 20-point game. Nevada now needs one more win to reach double digit wins for the first time in three years.
Nevada remains at home to host the Air Force Falcons next Wednesday, Feb. 15 at 6:30 p.m.
