Nevada notes from Chris Murray

Here's Chris Murray with his take after viewing the Nevada - Colorado State contest:

Plenty of positive signs for Pack basketball team
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
12/3/2008

As documented in our Nevada-Colorado State game story, the shots were falling for the Wolf Pack on Tuesday night. But there were some more encouraging signs beyond that. Here are a few.

- The Wolf Pack was able to shut down CSU's Andy Ogide (seven points, six rebounds), who was averaging a double-double entering the game. Nevada had been torched inside the previous three games, but the combination of Dario Hunt, Luke Babbitt and the Phillips boys (Richie and Ahyaro) held Ogide in check. The Rams did score 42 points in the paint -- which is way too much -- but a lot of those came off drives.

- Ahyaro Phillips got his first extended playing time and looked good in the process. He made one defensive mistake that led to a layup and was called for a lane violation on a free throw, but the freshman grabbed four rebounds in five minutes and hit a pair of free throws. Phillips is the most athletic player on the team and, judging by the pre-game warmups, has a pretty solid stroke. Phillips also put on an impressive dunking display prior to the Portland game...

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