The 19th-largest crowd in Lawlor Events Center’s history – 10,236 people stampeded into the 32-year-old arena – came to watch the Nevada basketball team try and exact revenge on Fresno State on Saturday afternoon.
Instead, that near-record crowd saw Nevada lose at Lawlor for the first time in 323 days, snapping the team’s 13-game home winning streak, which was tied for the third-longest in school history. Ultimately, a poor first half doomed Nevada.
Nevada fell into a 17-point hole less than 14 minutes into the game, trailed by 13 at halftime and despite a spirited second-half charge could never push ahead in a wire-to-wire 81-76 loss to Fresno State, which continued its mastery over Nevada by winning its seventh game in the last 11 matchup between the rivals.