Deonte Burton and Malik Story have a done a nice job of shouldering the scoring burden for the Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball team.
Both of them are currently averaging 16.2 points a game for the 12-12 Wolf Pack.
If Burton and Story continue at that pace the rest of the year they will become just the second Wolf Pack scoring duo in the past 14 seasons, since Trent Johnson took over the program in 1999-00, to each average at least 16 points a game.
Burton and Story, though, with 32.4 points a game combined, rank just sixth among scoring combos for the Pack since the 1999-00 season.
The best dynamic duo the Pack has had since 1999-00 was Nick Fazekas and Marcelus Kemp in 2006-07, the last time the Pack qualified for the NCAA Tournament. Fazekas averaged 20.4 points a game and Kemp averaged 18.5 to give them a combined contribution each game of 38.9 points.
The top scoring duos for the Pack since 1999-000 . . .
- Nick Fazekas, Marcelus Kemp, 2006-07 . . . 38.9
- Luke Babbitt-Armon Johnson, 2009-10 . . . 37.6
- Fazekas-Kemp, 2005-06 . . . 36.8
- Kemp-JaVale McGee, 2007-08 . . . 34.1
- Fazekas-Kevinn Pinkney, 2004-05 . . . 33.2
- Burton-Story, 2012-13 . . . 32.4
- Babbitt-Johnson, 2008-09 . . . 32.4
- Terrance Green-Gary Hill-Thomas, 2001-02 . . . 31.9
- Kirk Snyder-Fazekas, 2003-04 . . . 31.4
- Snyder-Green, 2002-03 . . . 29.6
- Burton-Story, 2011-12 . . . 28.9
- Burton-Story, 2010-11 . . . 28.2
- Green-Adrian McCullough, 1999-00 . . . 26.2
- Green-Andre Hazel, 2000-01 . . . 20.7
AIR FORCE, WYOMING PROBLEM FOR STORY: Story's struggles the last two games from 3-point range might have nothing to do with anything but the opponents and the Mountain West schedule.
Wyoming and Air Force simply have found the secret to keeping Story quiet from long distance. And, unfortunately for Story, the Pack had to play the two schools in back-to-back games twice this year, hack on Jan. 9 and 12 and this past week on Feb. 9 and 13.
In two games each against both Air Force and Wyoming this year the Wolf Pack senior has gone just 4-for-26 from 3-point range. He was 1-for-11 against them back in January and this past week he was a combined 3-for-15.
Story, the Wolf Pack's all-time leading career 3-point shooter, on the year is shooting .347 (59-of-170) from 3-point range. Take away Wyoming and Air Force and he's shooting .381 (55-of-144).
BURTON SHOWS SIGNS OF LIFE FROM 3-POINT RANGE: Burton's 3-point shot has been inconsistent at best this year. The junior point guard is shooting just .301 (25-of-83) from long distance.
That is considerably down from his first two seasons at Nevada when he shot .355 (43-of-121) as a freshman and .372 last year (58-of-156).
Burton, though, hit both of his 3-point shots in the 68-48 loss to Wyoming earlier this week and is 3-of-7 in the last two games. Before the last two games he was 4-of-31 over the previous six games.
PANZER GOES BACK OUTSIDE: Wolf Pack center Kevin Panzer had his best game of his career two games ago against Air Force when he was 5-of-6 for 10 points and 14 rebounds. And none of his shots were from 3-point range.
Pack coach David Carter praised Panzer for not "floating" out to 3-point range and staying in or near the paint to receive scoring opportunities.
Panzer, though, took three of his five shots from 3-point range in the loss to Wyoming on Wednesday. He was successful, making two of them, but he also took just two shots inside as the Pack scored just 48 points.
