Saturday, November 22nd, 10:05 p.m. (et)

FACTS & STATS: Site: Lawlor Events Center (11,536) -- Reno, Nevada. Television: None. Home Record: OSU 0-0, Nevada 0-0. Away Record: OSU 0-1, Nevada 1-1. Neutral Record: OSU 0-0, Nevada 0-0. Conference Record: OSU 0-0, Nevada 0-0. Series Record: Series is tied, 4-4.

GAME NOTES: The Nevada Wolf Pack play their first home game of the season tonight as they entertain the Oregon State Beavers in non-conference action at the Lawlor Events Center in Reno. The Pack has already played a pair of games, both on the road, and split them between a 72-63 victory over Montana State in the opener on Saturday and a 65-51 loss to San Diego on Tuesday night at the Jenny Craig Pavilion. As for the Ducks, they're trying to bounce back from an unsightly loss to Howard in the nation's capital last Friday by a score of 47-45. The setback was the 22nd in a row for the Beavers, who have not won a single outing since they defeated Northern Colorado by a score of 65-56 at home back on December 19, 2007. OSU plays just two of its first six games of the season at home, but beginning on December 13 the squad then has a stretch of six straight in Corvallis, including a revenge meeting with the Bison on December 20. The series between the teams is tied at four games apiece, with Nevada having taken the last four in a row. The most recent of those triumphs came during the 2006-07 campaign when the Pack held down Oregon State in a 75-47 decision on the road. All four of the victories for the Beavers came between 1921-1923, the last of those being a 15-6 decision.

The Beavers made just eight field goals in each half in the opener versus Howard last week, resulting in a mere 37.2 percent shooting from the floor and 23.5 percent behind the three-point line in the two-point setback inside Burr Gymnasium. Seth Tarver tallied a team-best 10 points for the squad, while Josh Tarver and Roeland Schaftenaar each dropped in eight points. Defensively the team played well enough to limit the Bison to only 36.2 percent shooting from the floor and 9-of-29 beyond the arc, but that effort still was not enough to turn the tables. Just a 6-25 team from a year ago, new head coach Craig Robinson has his hands full trying to turn this group around in a short amount of time. Winless against the rest of the Pac-10 Conference in 18 attempts, OSU scored a mere 59.9 ppg a season ago, so it should come as little surprise that there is no returning scorer who averaged in double digits in 2007-08. Seth Tarver comes close after putting up 9.6 ppg and is also the top returning rebounder with his 4.6 bounds per outing as well.

After such a great debut for the Wolf Pack a few days earlier, Luke Babbitt came out and appeared to have lost his touch versus San Diego. The forward missed all but one of his nine field goal attempts and finished with more turnovers (four) than points (three), as Nevada fell by double digits on the road. Joey Shaw ended up as the top scorer for the visitors with 16 points and Armon Johnson contributed 10, but between them they shot just 9-of-30 from the floor. Having a better time of it was Malik Cooke, who tallied 13 points and six rebounds for a team that was 17.6 percent from three-point range. In the opener, Babbitt posted 20 points and 12 rebounds versus Montana State, which means the Wolf Pack had better not count on him for similar numbers this season considering how little he produced on Tuesday night. Johnson is the leading scorer after two games with his 13.0 ppg, but his 1-of-9 effort behind the three-point line does little to instill confidence in his perimeter abilities.

Already cruising along with the longest losing streak in program history, there doesn't appear to be an end in sight for a Beavers' team that will be lucky to be close even at the half against Nevada tonight.

Predicted Outcome

Nevada 72, Oregon State 50