The Nevada Tigers and Butler Bears met earlier in the season on December 14th in the consolation bracket of the Butler tournament. In that game, the Tigers would come out a bit cold and worked the entire game to come back, able to take the lead at one point, but would eventually fall 53-48. They knew they would have another chance at the Bears in the season and Friday night in Wynn Gymnasium the Tigers came out ready to make a statement.
Nevada would win the tip, but the Bears would strike first with a 3-pointer to get the scoring started. The Tigers would keep the fans in a bit of suspense of how the night would go when they started out missing their first 4 shots from the field before Jack Cheaney would drive in to put the first Tiger points on the board, which he would then follow-up with a 3 of his own giving the Tigers their first lead at 5-3. Riddick Shook hit a trey before Butler went on a 5-0 run to tie everything back up at 8. Butler and Nevada would trade free throws to keep things tight, but Nevada was about ready to start rolling. An Uche Mba offensive rebound and put-back followed by a Brice Budd 3 out of an inbound play gave the Tigers a spark and they would rebound the ball with just under 6 seconds to play in the quarter and take it all the way down the court with Riddick Shook finding Uche Mba for a beautiful jumper at the buzzer to end the quarter on a 9-0 run and a score of 21-10.
Butler would score first in the 2nd quarter, but Nevada worked harder on the offensive and defensive boards than they had all season and gave themselves multiple opportunities for different players to score. Jack Cheaney drove into the lane and put in a perfect tear drop jumper to extend the Nevada lead back to double-digits, but Butler would answer with a 3 on the other end getting back within 8. While Nevada and Butler haven’t played against each other prior to this season in quite some time, you couldn’t tell by the atmosphere in Wynn Gym. Even as the Tigers seem to have the game in hand if you just walked in you would’ve thought the game was much closer. The Tigers continued their improvement at the free throw line with Riddick Shook going perfect from the line for the night, including a couple of pairs from Butler technical fouls, and Brice Budd would convert his 3 shots from the charity stripe after being fouled in the act of a corner 3, giving Nevada a lead of 44-19 going into the locker room.
The Bears started the 3rd quarter with the ball, but a Brice Budd steal and outlet pass to Kellen Braden would see the Tigers continue their offensive attack. Braden, who spent much of the 2nd quarter on the bench with 3 fouls, would hit two 3-pointers for the quarter, as the Tigers proved that any of their players could be a threat with the ball. Riddick Shook found Gabe Smith on a great backdoor cut at the basket to continue to pad the lead as the Tigers seemed to be firing on all cylinders. With just over 3 minutes left in the quarter Brice Budd would knock down his 3rd trey of the game and the Tiger defense would come up with another stop and get the ball to Jack Cheaney who drove to the basket and completed his own 3-point play the old-fashioned way with a lay-up and made free throw. With the scoreboard reading 73-32 at the end of the 3rd all of the starters would find their way to the bench and the turbo clock would run the entirety of the 4th stanza.
The Tigers JV players were able to gain some great experience against the Butler Varsity as they worked to continue the statement that was made by their team leaders. A Drew Miller 3-pointer from right in front of his own bench would bring everyone off their feet as the Tigers proved that when they put their minds to something, they can achieve anything.
4 of the 5 Nevada Tiger starters would reach double-figures with Jack Cheaney leading the way with 18, Brice Budd with 16, Riddick Shook with 14, and Kellen Braden with 12. Mason Majors added 6 of his own, while Gabe Smith and Uche Mba each added 4 a piece, Drew Miller had 3, and Alex Ast rounded it out with 2.
At the beginning of the season, Coach Gray had said that this would be a team that could have offensive firepower but would rely heavily on their defense to provide offensive opportunities, and this game was a great showcase of this mentality. Butler’s main scorer, who dropped 26 points on them in the first meeting, was held to just 7 points in the first half as Brice Budd made it his mission to challenge him at every dribble, and while he would end up leading all scorers for the night, he found most of those buckets late in the game while Nevada’s starters were on the bench. Per Coach Gray “While Trumbore got some points in the 4th quarter when the game was decided, our guys' ability to keep him off the left baseline proved to be a huge factor.”
After the game, Head Coach Shaun Gray was excited to see his players step up to the challenge of avenging a game they felt they could have won earlier in the season. He said “I thought our guys played our most complete 4 quarters of the season tonight, especially on the defensive end. The biggest key was the job we did on the glass and the job we did keeping Carter Trumbore from driving left. Holding Davidson to 1 total point and no offensive stickbacks was huge.”
Nevada will begin Big 8 West play next week, as long as the impending blizzard conditions don’t stifle their plans, when Lamar is scheduled to visit Nevada on Tuesday. Coach Gray said, “We hope to carry this momentum into conference play next week.”
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