Gray pleased with Tigers opening-round effort in Frontenac

A convincing 54-29 victory over the eighth-seeded Monett Cubs in the opening-round of the Frontenac Invitational, advanced the top-seeded Nevada Tigers into the tournament semifinals.

Thursday night's win improved Nevada to 9-3 overall, as the Tigers have now reeled off four consecutive victories.

The Tigers darted out to a 14-0 lead and never looked back, holding a double-digit advantage for nearly the entirety of the contest.

For the Tigers, junior forward Clay Gayman finished with a game-high 19 points, while point guard Matt Sommer pitched in 16.

"Monett is really small at the guard position," Nevada head coach Shaun Gray explained.

"So we wanted to pressure their guards and make it tough on them. We were able to do that and get some turnovers.

"Any time you can turn a team over a lot and score of that, you're going to put yourself in a position to put the game away early. I was proud of the fact we executed."

Continued Gray, "Sometimes teams play to their competition. I didn't think we did that. We asserted ourselves as the more athletic, more disciplined team ---- and kind of dominated from start to finish."

Gray said he was thrilled with Nevada's energy on the defensive end of the floor, adding that the Tigers deployed variations of their full-court press with superb results.

"We ran some full-court man, some full-court zone press, and some run- and-jump trap stuff," Gray said. "The defensive energy from start to finish is the thing I was most pleased with."

Up next

Nevada faces the fifth-seeded Frontenac Raiders in the semifinals, with tip off slated for today at 5:30 p.m.