Versatile Nevada will test Rainbows

It is now or (probably) never.

The Hawaii men’s basketball team has one final chance to score a win at Nevada today and end a well-chronicled 0-14 run of futility against the Wolf Pack in Reno.

Such a feat will not be easy, even with UH riding high from its thrilling 74-68 overtime win at Fresno State on Thursday night. WAC leader Nevada is on a 10-game winning streak going into the 5 p.m. game at Lawlor Events Center.

It’s the last meeting between the teams in Reno, Nev., before UH and Nevada go their separate ways — the Rainbow Warriors to the Big West Conference and the Wolf Pack to the Mountain West. Barring a future nonconference mainland meeting or additional swapping of league membership, UH will not return to Reno.

UH coach Gib Arnold was less concerned with that and more worried about the Pack’s talented first five that’s been a model of consistency and a game-planning nightmare for opposing coaches.

"Obviously it would be special," Arnold said on the phone from Reno after the team flew in from San Francisco. "I don’t know if our team is really (thinking), a rally cry, a farewell to the WAC. This team’s more focused on the game at hand."

Nevada returned its starting five from last season — and has already matched its 2010-11 win total — by starting Deonte Burton, Malik Story, Jerry Evans Jr., Olek Czyz and Dario Hunt all 16 games. All except Evans average double-figure scoring.

Burton, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, is considered a WAC Player of the Year candidate for his blend of scoring (15.4 ppg) and play-making ability (4.9 apg); he’s been WAC Player of the Week three times already. Story is fourth nationally in 3-point shooting at 49.5 percent. Hunt is the Pack’s career leader in blocks and a nightly double-double threat. Czyz, a Duke transfer, is an all-around scorer. And Evans nailed his first five 3-pointers as Nevada went for a program-record 16 3s in an 81-57 win over San Jose State on Thursday.

"This starting five’s as good as anybody we’ve played," Arnold said.

UH might not be able to match up man-for-man talent-wise at every position, but Arnold believes his team’s best bet is to pound it inside early and get to the free-throw line. Junior center Vander Joaquim is coming off a 23-point, 16-rebound game at Fresno in which he scored 14 of UH’s final 20 points, including the tying basket at the end of regulation and just about every big ‘Bows bucket in the extra period.

"You gotta try to find weaknesses in the armor, and there aren’t many, and you try to exploit those," Arnold said.

While UH has found its rhythm lately, winning eight of its past 10, Nevada’s been successful both at home and on the road in winning 13 of 14 after an 0-2 start. The Pack are 8-1 at Lawlor this season, and last week they snapped Utah State’s 33-game WAC home winning streak in Logan, Utah.

The Pack are also stalwart defensively, allowing a WAC-low 62.6 points per game and a .407 field-goal percentage, third-best behind UH (.396) and USU (.405).

Third-year Wolf Pack coach David Carter downplayed his team’s recent success.

"I don’t like to talk about the streak, because streaks end," Carter said on Friday. "I talk about, ‘Hey, let’s get ready for Hawaii.’ Every team creates a different challenge for you, so you have to be ready for that challenge.

"I think it’s going to be fairly close, a physical, competitive game. I expect nothing less than that tomorrow night."

UH went heavily to sophomore defensive specialist Garrett Jefferson at the swingman position (43 of 45 possible minutes) to frustrate the Bulldogs’ top scorer, Kevin Olekaibe, into a 5-for-17 game, but that’s likely to change against the Pack; Nevada doesn’t rely on a single player to get production.

"Garrett’s pretty sore and tired right now, but without him maybe we don’t win that game," Arnold said. "You might see Trevor (Wiseman) and Hauns (Brereton) a little bit more this game just how the defensive rotation falls."

Senior guard Zane Johnson (24 points) and point guard Miah Ostrowski (career-best 11 assists) also had big games against Fresno in helping UH to its first 2-0 WAC start since 2005-06. With six 3-pointers, Johnson moved into fifth place on the UH career 3s list at 147, leapfrogging Bobby Nash and Michael Kuebler.