{"id":439834,"date":"2026-01-27T03:14:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T03:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/439834\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T03:14:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T03:14:18","slug":"three-keys-to-victory-and-a-prediction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/439834\/","title":{"rendered":"Three keys to victory and a prediction"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nevada men\u2019s basketball team hosts Grand Canyon on Tuesday night. Nevada Sports Net\u2019s Chris Murray breaks down the game with his three keys to victory and prediction. This feature is presented in partnership with Bradley, Drendel & Jeanney<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Grand Canyon (13-6, 6-2 MW) at Nevada (14-6, 6-3)<\/p>\n

When: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Where: Lawlor Events Center (11,536 capacity)<\/p>\n

TV\/Radio: FS1\/95.5 FM<\/p>\n

Online: None<\/p>\n

Betting line: No line posed yet<\/p>\n

Three keys for Nevada to win<\/p>\n

1. Win the free throw battle: Grand Canyon has the nation\u2019s No. 27-ranked defense, per KenPom, which is bested among MW schools by only New Mexico and San Diego State, which held Nevada to 73 and 68 points, respectively. The Wolf Pack averaged 70.5 points in those two games and has tallied 77.7 points in its other MW contests. So, Nevada\u2019s offense faces a stiff challenge against a Grand Canyon defense that is solid across the board. There is not one stand-out aspect for the Antelopes on defense, but they defend the three well and limit offensive rebounds, two Wolf Pack strengths. An area Nevada must exploit is the foul line. The Antelopes foul on 26.5 percent of its opponents\u2019 possessions, which is a high rate. Both of these teams get to the foul line a lot. Nevada needs to win that battle given it\u2019s at home.<\/p>\n

2. A good game from Comer: Nevada\u2019s point guard play has been inconsistent, but when either Tayshawn Comer or Tyler Rolison has played well, the Wolf Pack is really tough to beat. Unfortunately for the Wolf Pack, those two have lacked ideal consistency despite being game-changers when playing at their peak. Comer is getting the lion\u2019s share of the lead guard minutes, so we\u2019ll highlight him here. In Nevada\u2019s last eight games, Comer is averaging 10 points while shooting 36.8 percent. Before the stretch, he was averaging 16.1 points on 43.9 percent shooting. Getting Comer comfortable on offense again is a big key for Nevada\u2019s long-term outlook. And against Grand Canyon, which has some high-powered offensive guards, the Wolf Pack needs a big game from Comer, who has been a mid-game maestro in his best games and is capable of that against the Antelopes.<\/p>\n

3. Hem off the paint: Grand Canyon has struggled offensively this season (157th in KenPom, ninth out of 12 MW teams). But the Antelopes have made strides in recent games. It\u2019s still not great and ranks ninth in the MW in league play, but Grand Canyon\u2019s efficiency has bumped from 106.2 points per 100 possessions in non-league to 111.3 in MW action. One of the big issues has been the 3-point shooting, with the Antelopes making only 30.3 percent of their shots from beyond the arc. Grand Canyon, however, has strong guard play led by Jaden Henley (17.2 ppg) and Makaih Williams (13.1 ppg), both of whom can break down a defense and get into the paint. Those two have combined for 173 \u201cclose twos,\u201d or more than nine shots per game at the bucket. The Antelopes\u2019 improved MW offense has been a result of better two-point shooting (53.2 percent), so Nevada must keep those guards out of the paint.<\/p>\n

Prediction<\/p>\n

Nevada 73, Grand Canyon 69: This is the only regular-season matchup between the teams, which is (a) good for Nevada because winning at Grand Canyon is really tough and (b) also kind of a bummer because the Antelopes\u2019 home-court atmosphere is one of the West Coast\u2019s best, which would have been a fun gameday atmosphere to experience. This game could go a long way to determining which team gets a bye at the MW Tournament, so there are big stakes. Grand Canyon is playing its best basketball of the season having beaten Utah State, San Diego State and Fresno State in its last three. But the Antelopes could be without key starter Brian Moore Jr., who missed the team\u2019s last game, and Nevada has had more offensive firepower, which should be enough for a close home win. Season record: 14-6<\/p>\n

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter at @ByChrisMurray.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nevada men\u2019s basketball team hosts Grand Canyon on Tuesday night. Nevada Sports Net\u2019s Chris Murray breaks down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,11810,228865,228864,228867,134349,228863,76949,85,228866],"class_list":["post-439834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-defense","tag-free-throw","tag-grand-canyon","tag-lawlor-events-center","tag-mountain-west","tag-nevada-basketball","tag-prediction","tag-sports","tag-tayshawn-comer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}