Jarod Lucas racked up 25 points and Nevada continued its winning ways Friday afternoon by defeating TCU 88-75 in the semifinals of the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu.
Nevada (11-1) won its fourth straight game and advanced to Sunday’s championship game to face the winner of Friday evening’s semifinal matchup between Georgia Tech and Hawaii. TCU (9-2) now plays in Sunday’s third-place game against the loser of Georgia Tech and Hawaii.
Lucas shot 5-for-9 from the field and 13-for-13 at the foul line. Nick Davidson and Kenan Blackshear each added 14 points for the Wolf Pack.
Emanuel Miller finished as the Horned Frogs’ high-scorer with 24 points. Micah Peavy and Avery Anderson III added 11 points apiece.
TCU played the entirety of the second half without head coach Jamie Dixon on the sidelines, as Dixon was ejected with 4:04 left in the first half after picking up his second technical foul.
The margin was kept within five points for the first 13 minutes, with the largest lead for either team being TCU’s 13-8 advantage on a 3-pointer from Miller with 14:35 left.
The Wolf Pack claimed their first lead with 10:37 remaining as Hunter McIntosh converted a 3-pointer, putting Nevada up 18-17.
The lead quickly changed hands three times, but Nevada took control in the form of a 15-4 scoring run. Davidson’s dunk, which came off a TCU turnover, broke a 23-23 tie and sparked the run, as Nevada gained a 35-27 edge.
The Wolf Pack led 48-36 by halftime picked up where they left off in the second half, with an 8-2 spurt out of the intermission. Tre Coleman’s fastbreak layup at the tail end of the run widened the Wolf Pack lead to 56-38 with 16:38 left.
The lead grew to 20 on Lucas’ 3-pointer just two minutes later, but TCU fought back, cutting the Nevada advantage to single digits at 67-58 with 9:40 remaining.
Nevada countered, scoring the next five points. TCU never got closer than nine points from the lead, and the Wolf Pack closed the game going 5-of-6 from the foul line over the final 2:05.
–Field Level Media