Conference play started Wednesday night for the Lobo Men’s Basketball team and they needed to get the bad taste out of their mouth from last week, when they went 0-4 with two very bad losses against Rice and Washington State. The game day didn’t get off to a good start, as freshman backup center Nikola Scekic announced that he was transferring an hour and a half before the game. With the departure of Scekic, the Lobos have only 3 true post players left on the roster with Obij Aget, Tim Williams and Joe Furstinger, which will force Coach Neal to use more four guard lineups than he has ever played. That might not be a bad thing, though, as parts of this game proved.

Game Recap

First Half:

The game started out looking like the Lobos weren’t able to recover and regroup after last week’s losses. The Wolf Pack jumped out to an early 9-4 lead, leading the Lobo faithful to ask if this was an end to a once-promising season. The Lobos responded with some of the best basketball that they have played this season, going on an extended 25-2 run to take a 29-11 lead with 7:08 left in the half. The next five minutes of the half the two teams exchanged runs that ended with the Lobos holding a 42-24 lead with 2:04 in the half and Nevada’s best player, Marqueze Coleman, being helped off the court. But then the bad Lobos showed up and Nevada closed the half on a 9-0 run to make the half time score 42-33 Lobos. The Lobos played great basketball for 16 minutes in the first half, and really bad basketball for 2 minutes that allowed Nevada back into the game and likely changed the tone of Coach Neal’s halftime speech.

Second Half:

The start of the second half was very sloppy for both teams, as they traded turnovers and bad shots. Things got interesting when Tim Williams picked up his fourth foul with 13:27 left in the game, when the Lobos had a 55-47 lead. This allowed Coleman, who was held to only 3 points in the first half, to get to the basket at will, which was a big part of why he was able to score 23 points in the second half. The Lobos needed an answer and quickly to hold on the lead and they found just that from some unlikely sources. Xavier Adams and Obij Aget stepped up big for the Lobos, both playing great in the second half to help the Lobos keep the Wolf Pack out of reach. Adams played his best game as a Lobo, finishing with 14 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists in his 20 minutes of action. Big O, on top of his usual good defense, chipped in 14 points of his own and grabbed 11 boards for his second double-double of the season. Elijah Brown, although he didn’t shoot well from the floor, was clutch from the free throw line, finishing the game 15-15 from the line and was one free throw shy of tying Kendall Williams’ 16-16 school record. While Brown wasn’t great from the floor, he did attack the Wolf Pack defense, which led to him almost fouling out the entire Wolf Pack team. Brown finished the game with 24 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assist. At the end of the day, the Lobos were able to finish off the Wolf Pack and start off conference play with an important 88-76 win.

Players of the Game

1. Obij Aget (8 points on the season): Maybe the mask was holding him back. While he finished tied for third in scoring this game, he was fantastic on both sides of the ball, finishing the game with 14 points (7-9 shooting) 11 rebounds, 3 blocks and 3 steals. If the Lobos are able to get this kind of production from Aget on a regular basis, they will be able to be a force in the league.
2. Xavier Adams (2 points on the season): Adams played his best game of his Lobo career, which certainly warrants his first appearance on this list. The Lobos needed energy and Adams provided it, being the spark off the bench that we keep thinking he can be. Adams finished the game with a career-high 14 points (4-6 from the floor, 6-8 from the line), 5 rebounds and 2 assists. Expect for Adams role to expand more with the use of four guard lineups, as he showed tonight that he can handle some minutes at the four position.
3. Tie- Elijah Brown (28 points on the season): We have gotten so used to Brown having very productive games that a 24 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals performance can seem typical. Brown played a great game and could easily be higher on this list, but I thought Aget and Adams deserved more praise with the quality of their play.
   Tie- Tim Williams (26 points on the season): Williams and Brown have been the steady force behind the Lobos this season and tonight was no different, as Williams ended up with 20 points (9-13 shooting), 4 rebounds, 1 assist and a steal. The one thing that limited Williams’ production tonight was his foul trouble, which kept his minutes to 25.

Scattered Thoughts

• I feel we should probably talk about Nik for a second. If I’m being honest, I don’t think that I expected him to stay all four years, but that’s because I figured that he’d leave early to go play professionally (probably in Europe). Still, I was surprised to see that he’s choosing to leave now. That is, until I heard Coach Neal’s comments about his handlers. They’ve apparently been trying to pressure him into starting Nik ever since he stepped foot on campus and when it became clear that wasn’t happening this season (nor should it have), they decided to make a change. Note that I said “they”. I’m not really sure how much of this decision was actually made by Nik. Given his age, especially, I don’t think this makes a lot of sense for him, as he’ll be 21 next time that he checks into a game and that alone will scare off NBA teams (which seems to hurt his stated goal). I hope, for his sake, that things work out for him, but I just don’t have a good feeling about the advice he’s being given.
• So, that leaves the Lobos with three healthy big men on the roster, which means that it will basically be impossible for Coach Neal to play his preferred three guards/two bigs lineup. Sam, X, and Dane can all play the four, in the sense that they have the size to guard that position, but none of them are post players, which means that if they’re in the game, it’s a four-guard lineup. This actually might be a good thing, as the Lobos’ depth lies on the perimeter, not down low, and that’s really been the case for most of the season (basically since they lost Devon). Now, they’re going to be forced to play with four guards more often, which will let them exploit that depth much better than they have all season.

Up Next

The Lobos head west to Fresno, California to take on Fresno State this Saturday night. Fresno State has been one of the few good stories in the conference so far this season and are coming off a great road win against UNLV. If the Lobos want to have a chance to win the conference, this is a swing game that will go a long way in the conference standings. Fresno State may only drop one home game in conference and you want to be the team that does it. A loss is not damaging, but would be a missed opportunity for a good road win.