| Western Athletic Finals Recap | |||
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Recap by Steve Sheridan No. 1 Nevada 66, No. 2 UTEP 60 After being crowned co-champions of the WAC during the regular season, top-seeded Nevada and second-seeded UTEP faced off in the championship game on Saturday night, with Nevada escaping from The Save Mart Center with its first-ever WAC Championship, a 66-60 victor. Kirk Snyder, named the WAC Tournament MVP for his work, helped the team to victory despite a horrible shooting night. Snyder finished with 11 points on only 3-of-13 shooting, but also added 14 rebounds, as neither team was able to get any sort of rhythm going on the offensive end. UTEP shot only 33 percent from the field, while Nevada was able to pull out the victory despite hitting just 31 percent of its shots. Kevinn Pinkney led the Wolf Pack with 15 points, followed by Todd Okeson with 14 points. But Snyder, Pinkney, Okeson and Nick Fazekas, the top four offensive threats for Nevada, hit only 10-of-46 shots between the four of them as the tenacious UTEP defense combined to slow down the potent Nevada offense. However, the Wolf Pack did just as good a job on the Miners. Omar Thomas, who came into the game as UTEP’s leading scorer, scored 12 points, but all of those 12 came in the opening 20 minutes as he was unable to help his team down the stretch. Thomas, Filiberto Rivera and Jason Williams combined to hit only 13-of-37 attempts as each team displayed their struggling stars and intense defense for a national audience. The game was very close throughout, with neither team able to gain a huge advantage. There were seven lead changes in the second half, although UTEP held a lead for the majority of the final 20 minutes and seemed to have control of the game in the second half. However the last lead change came in the favor of the Wolf Pack at the 3:13 mark on a Snyder lay-up, one of his three field goals on the evening. Following that lay-up, UTEP was held to just two free throws as Nevada ended the game on a 9-2 run that sealed the championship. The WAC all-tournament team, announced just after the game, was populated entirely of Wolf Pack and Miner members. Snyder and Okeson were named from the winning Wolf Pack team while Miners Rivera, Thomas and Williams were all recognized for their excellent efforts. Snyder was serenaded with chants of “One More Year!” from the Nevada faithful that traveled to Fresno. The junior guard is considered a good NBA prospect, but all Wolf Pack fans are anticipating another excellent season with their star guard playing in a Nevada uniform.
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