Menu
Tigers awake from hibernation in second half against Bears
By Joe Warren
Nevada Daily Mail
Just when the Nevada Tigers hit rock bottom offensively against the Butler Bears Monday, a rare thing happened -- their shots started to fall.
The Tigers snapped out of a funk that had spanned five games over three weeks to pull out a come-from-behind 47-42 win.
Scoring only 13 first-half points the Tigers (5-3) looked every bit like a team that had not even played a game in over two weeks.
After a three-point play by Ben Wilson with 1:18 left in the first quarter gave Nevada a 9-6 lead, Butler (4-5) went on a 19-4 run that lasted the rest of the first half.
Trailing 25-13, Nevada came out in the second half with a defensive adjustment and added intensity. Eventually that translated into success on the offensive end as well.
The Tigers went to a man-to-man defense after using mostly a 2-3 zone in the first half, and started to press the Bears a little.
"We got after them and thought we could bother them with pressure," Nevada coach John McNeley said of the adjustment. "We probably should have put more pressure on them the entire game."
The pressure led to a 19-point explosion in the third period for the Tigers, as they turned the 12-point deficit into a one-point lead going into the fourth quarter, 31-30.
The outburst was led offensively by sophomore Bryan Campbell and junior J.R. Mills, and defensively by senior Taylor Rainey.
Campbell broke out of almost a month-long shooting slump by knocking down a pair of open threes, and Mills also hit one from outside during the run.
But it was Rainey that came out and made some good defensive plays that seemed to raise the intensity level of the whole team.
"Taylor Rainey and Coach (Justin) Hoover are the two guys that really got us going in the second half," McNeley said.
McNeley praised Rainey for his aggressiveness and Hoover for speaking up at halftime about the lackluster intensity level displayed by the Tigers in the first half.
"Our players respect (Hoover)," McNeley said. "For the first time ever they heard him challenge them."
Hoover is an assistant with the Tigers and also played for Nevada under McNeley when he was in high school.
The defensive change made a difference but it was the offensive success in the second half that came right when the Tigers needed it.
Nevada had shot a season-low 24-percent from the field in their previous game Dec. 17 against Harrisonville, which they lost. They had also struggled knocking down open shots in their previous three games, even though they won two of them.
McNeley said that Campbell and Mills were just lacking confidence, even though they are the two best shooters on the team.
"Both of them have shot the ball really well in practice the last week," he said. "I just told them (at halftime) 'you better have confidence that it's going in. When either one of you guys shoots it, I think it's going in every time.'"
Campbell used his two outside shots to get into an offensive rhythm which helped him score 12 of his game-high 16 points in the second half.
Mills added a three in the fourth quarter and hit three free throws after being fouled on another attempt from behind the arc late in the game. He finished with 11 points as the only other Tiger in double figures.
Rainey also stepped up offensively as the defensive specialist pitched in with eight points.
Wilson had six points for the Tigers and Eric Atkinson also had six. Atkinson had a key offensive rebound on a missed free throw in the fourth quarter that he laid in with one second left in the game to give Nevada their final five-point lead.
Nevada plays again Thursday when they host Pleasant Hill.