by COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – In its third overtime game of the season, the Nevada women’s basketball team dropped a 79-74 decision to Air Force Saturday afternoon at Clune Arena.
As has been the case for much of the Mountain West season, the Wolf Pack (5-12, 1-5 MW) battled until the final buzzer, showing fight and resiliency the entire game. With 8:30 still to play in the fourth quarter, the Falcons’ Riley Snyder hit a layup in the paint that put her team up by eight and with all of the momentum. On the Pack’s next two possessions, however, freshman Da’Ja Hamilton and junior Camariah King knocked down back-to-back triples that cut the deficit to just two points. Senior Terae Briggs (Crow Tribe) recorded her seventh double-double of the year with 13 points and 13 rebounds. She needs 15 rebounds to reach 600 in her career.
As the halfway point of the quarter approached, Nevada found itself in a position to tie the game and did just that on a fastbreak layup by Hamilton. The Pack took the lead on its next trip down the floor, getting a bucket in the paint from senior Terae Briggs. The Falcons answered right back and the two teams traded the lead back and forth for a good remainder of the quarter.
With the score knotted up at 65 and 1:40 on the clock, both teams had equal chances to regain the lead but could not get a bucket to fall. After Air Force’s Kaelin Immel missed a go-ahead jumper with 37 ticks left, Nevada got the ball back with a chance of its own to take the lead. As the shot clock began to wind down, senior Jade Redmon took a pull-up jumper with seven seconds on the clock that bounced off the front of the rim and gave possession back to the Falcons. Air Force, with a chance to win the game with five seconds on the clock, had its ensuing inbound pass stolen by freshman Essence Booker, who then heaved up a shot from center court that fell short and sent the game into overtime.
Nevada got the first bucket of the overtime period as Briggs was fouled on a layup and hit the free throw to put the Pack up by three. The Falcons were able to tie the game at 68 at the 3:39 mark of the period on a fastbreak layup by Briana Autrey. Air Force took the lead for good with 3:10 on the clock as Snyder hit a jumper making the score 70-68. The Pack did pull it to a one-point game after Redmon sunk a pair of free throws with just over a minute to play. However, the Falcons hit their free throws down the stretch to put the game out of reach.
Redmon led the Pack in scoring for the sixth time this year, tying her season high of 18 points. She finished the game 7-of-14 from the field, 4-of-4 from the free throw line and collected six rebounds, one assist, one block and two steals. Freshman Imani Lacy also reached double figures for the fourth time this season, tying her career high of 12 points. Booker and Hamilton each fell just one point shy of posting points in double digits. King dished out a team-high five assists in the loss.
