Controversial call helps send Nevada basketball to its first Mountain West loss

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Nevada basketball coach Eric Musselman discusses his team's 104-103 double overtime loss at Wyoming on Wednesday. Chris Murray/RGJ

LARAMIE, Wyo. – Nevada's game at Wyoming on Wednesday night included two overtimes, 207 points, three foul outs, 16 lead changes and one crucial missed call that ultimately led to the Cowboys' student section storming the court. 

In one of the longest games in school history – it stretched so long the teams fell just 19 minutes short of playing into Thursday morning – the Wolf Pack fell 104-103 in double overtime in one of the most entertaining but also one of the most gut-wrenching outing in the Eric Musselman era. 

After Cody Martin hit a 35-foot 3-pointer at the buzzer to trim the final margin to one point, a portion of the 5,017 fans in attendance rushed onto the Arena-Auditorium hardwood to celebrate the Cowboys' first home win over a ranked team since beating No. 5 San Diego State in 2014. The loss dropped Nevada, which entered at No. 23 in the nation, to 0-3 when it's been ranked this season. It is 18-1 when unranked. 

"Two and a half years ago, who would have thought somebody would have stormed the floor against Nevada," Musselman said.

The Wolf Pack likely would have avoided that fate if not for a controversial call late in regulation. With the game tied at 74 in the waning seconds, Caleb Martin triggered a 3-pointer with about 3 seconds left. Replays showed Martin's right (shooting) forearm was hit on the play but no foul was called. Martin, a 46 percent shooter from three, immediately argued for the foul call after his shot got nowhere near the rim. 

"I'm not going to comment," Musselman said when asked about the play. "He doesn't shoot air balls." 

Martin was not made available to the media after the game, but his brother, Cody, said the Wolf Pack couldn't use that blown call as an excuse given the copious chances the team had to win. 

"It is what it is," Cody Martin said. "You can't sit there and dwell on calls you don't get. At the end of the day, we don't get everything right as you can see." 

Despite the missed call, the Wolf Pack has a golden opportunity to seal the win in the first overtime. Nevada led 87-83 after Caleb Martin's 3-pointer with 1 minute, 44 seconds remaining in the extra session. But, it struggled to keep Wyoming off the free throw line thereafter – a problem throughout the game – and failed to take advantage of its own freebies – a problem late in the game. 

The Wolf Pack made its first 23 free throws, but sank only 7-of-15 from that point forward, including 5-of-11 in overtime. Wyoming made 14-of-16 free throws in the extra periods.

"We didn't convert foul shots when we needed to and they did," Musselman said. "To me, without watching video, that's the biggest difference in the game." 

The Martin twins and Jordan Caroline each played at least 43 minutes. They also accounted for five of the six missed free throws in overtime. With Nevada trailing 89-88 with 10.7 seconds left in the first overtime, Caroline missed 1-of-2 with a chance to give his team the lead. 

"That's fatigue," Caroline said of the team's late free throw misses. "I went 9-of-11. I made my first seven and split my last four. You just have to fight through. You just have to push through. It is what it is." 

In the second overtime, the Wolf Pack fell behind 100-94 with 1:13 remaining before getting it back to a one-possession game twice. But, Nevada couldn't forced a third overtime period. 

"Give them a lot of credit," said Musselman, who suffered his first loss at Wyoming, which is typically one of the hardest Mountain West venues to win at. "They're well coached. They beat Boise here, they beat San Diego State. They're a really good team in their own building and we came up a basket short and a couple seconds short, but we lost the game and got out-played." 

While Nevada (18-4, 7-1 MW) will rue some of its possessions late in the game, it was the start of both halves that irked Musselman the most. Wyoming (13-7, 4-3) started the game on a 10-2 run and then opened the second half on a 7-0 spurt. Both times, Musselman summoned Cody Martin, who has been nursing an Achilles injury, from the bench to quell the runs. 

"I was really disappointed with how we started the game," Musselman said. "The first half, we just didn't have the energy we needed to start the game to beat a team like Wyoming, which is really, really good in its home building. I'm disappointed in how we started the game, but I thought we never quit for a second." 

Said Caroline: "We came out too lackadaisical in the first half, and that's what killed us. We came out and were down 10-2 and that hurts us a lot. Throughout the rest of the game, I think we played our hearts out. We got in a hole early and it was just something we couldn't overcome." 

In the first matchup between these teams earlier this month in Reno, a 92-83 Wolf Pack win, Nevada struggled to keep Wyoming out of the lane and off the free throw line. The pattern was repeated Wednesday. Wyoming shot 48.4 percent from the field and made 34-of-42 free throws. Slashing guard Justin James, who scored a career-high 30 in the first matchup with Nevada, out-did that effort with 33 points. Hayden Dalton, who scored just five points in Reno, had 25 to go with nine rebounds and four assists. 

Caroline led Nevada with 29 points and nine rebounds; Cody Martin had 27 points, seven rebounds and six assists; Caleb Martin finished with 19 points, five assists, three blocks and two steals; and Hallice Cooke chipped in 10 points. But Nevada was down to just six scholarship players after Kendall Stephens fouled out after 17 minutes and Lindsey Drew did the same following 29 minutes. 

"Some guys just had really poor performances tonight and that happens, and when it does you lose," Musselman said. "We had some guys play really, really good and some guys who didn't play very good. We had a stretch where we turned the ball over in the first half and I thought that was game-changing. We got sloppy with the ball and took some bad shots and you can't do that on the road when you're playing a good team and every possession matters." 

The possession that many Wolf Pack fans will point to is the Martin 3-pointer at the end of regulation, but that was one of 195 possessions on the night and Nevada wasn't ready to use that as excuse for why it lost. 

"At the end of the day it's on us and we have to figure out a way to win," Cody Martin said.