The Wolf Pack's redemption tour gobbled up another victim Thursday night at Lawlor Events Center.
The latest culprit to fall under Nevada's swarming defense was Portland. The Wolf Pack used a 22-0 run early in the game to daze the Pilots before waltzing to a 78-60 victory in front of 3,651 fans.
The victory was Nevada's fourth win over a nonconference opponent that beat the Wolf Pack last year. In addition to Portland, that list includes Washington, Arizona State and Pacific.
The only nonconference team that beat Nevada last year and this year was UNLV, which topped the Wolf Pack by four points in Nevada's second game of the season.
"You have that bad taste in your mouth going into the summer," said Olek Czyz, who tallied 15 points. "We definitely saw some of these teams on our schedule and that was kind of really nice to play them all again and redeem ourselves."
After beating Nevada, 66-62, last season, Portland (3-10) didn't have much of a chance Thursday night. The Wolf Pack's 22-0 run shot the team out to a 34-8 lead, and Nevada was never truly threatened in the wire-to-wire win.
"Normally, you get a 10-0 run or an 11- or 12-point run," Wolf Pack coach David Carter said. "But 22 points? That's pretty impressive. You just don't get those too often. You don't really see 22-0 runs."
It was a swarming pressure defense that sparked the run. The Wolf Pack had a season-high 14 steals, forced 24 turnovers and had 28 points off those turnovers.
Carter said he wanted to press Portland because he thought the struggling Pilots -- which fell to 0-7 on the road -- might try to slow the game down to keep it competitive. Instead, Nevada hurried the tempo and overwhelmed Portland's young roster.
"It was defense really," said Dario Hunt (15 points, 11 rebounds), who recorded his fourth straight double-double. "We had our defense converting into offense. Whenever you can get baskets like that, it really gets your team going. We did a really good job of getting our hands on balls this game and getting turnovers and converting, and that's what had us on that run."
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Portland didn't wilt. The Pilots went on a 9-0 run to start the second half and eventually cut Nevada's lead to 53-44 with 9:35 left in the game. But a Jerry Evans three-point play sparked a 10-0 rally, and the Wolf Pack buried the Pilots thereafter.
"We came out a little bit flat in the second half, and we let them get back into it," Hunt said. "We got away from things that we were doing in the first half that made us successful."
Still, the Wolf Pack (9-3) had no trouble racking up its sixth straight win. That's the program's longest winning streak since 2006-07 when Nevada started 7-0 and also had win streaks of nine and 10 games.
The Wolf Pack didn't even have trouble playing with its best player, Deonte Burton, for most of the game.
Burton, the preseason WAC player of the year, tallied only two points in 13 minutes because of foul trouble. His backups, Jordan Finn and Keith Fuetsch, combined for 10 points, three rebounds and two assists.
"It was good for us to experience that, especially at home," Carter said of playing without Burton. "I thought Jordan Finn and Keith Fuetsch did a good job filling that void when Deonte was in foul trouble. I tell the guys all the time that Deonte is a very big part of it, but we're a team and everybody is important 1-15."
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