Nevada (15-9, 10-7 MW), the No. 5 seed at the 2021 Air Force Reserve Mountain West Championship, opens tournament play Thursday, March 11, with a 2:30 p.m. quarterfinal clash against No. 4 Boise State (18-7, 14-6 MW).

Thursday's contest will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network, with Rich Waltz and Dan Dickau on the call. The game will also be broadcast in Reno on ESPN Radio 94.5 FM with John Ramey calling the action.

UP NEXT
A win Thursday will send the Wolf Pack into Friday's semifinals, which will tip at 6 p.m. on CBS Sports Network. Potential semifinal opponents would include: No. 1 San Diego State, No. 8 Wyoming, and No. 9 San Jose State.

SCOUTING BOISE STATE
Boise State (18-7, 14-6 MW) enters the Mountain West Tournament as the draw's No. 4 seed, and looks to keep its NCAA Tournament at-large hopes alive this week.

The Broncos, which have dropped three-straight heading into Thursday, are led by first-team All-Mountain West selection Derrick Alston (17.5 ppg, 44.5 FG pct.) and second-teamer Abu Kigab (11.8 ppg, 5.4 rpg).

SERIES WITH BOISE STATE
Nevada leads the all-time series against the Broncos, 50-28, and has won 10 of the past 11 meetings after sweeping this season's two-game series. The Pack and Broncos have split their two all-time meetings at the Mountain West Tournament, both coming in the quarterfinals. Boise State beat Nevada, 75-62, in the 2014 tournament, while the Pack collected a 77-69 win in 2019.

The Nevada coaching staff boasts impressive head-to-head records against Boise State, as head coach Steve Alford is 7-1 all-time (4-0 with New Mexico, 3-1 with Nevada) against the Broncos, and head-to-head against Bronco head coach Leon Rice, while associate head coach Craig Neal went 6-3 against Rice's Bronco teams while New Mexico's head coach from 2013-17.

SHERFIELD, CAMBRIDGE, JR. COLLECT ALL-MOUNTAIN WEST HONORS
The Mountain West announced its all-conference teams and superlatives Tuesday, and Nevada's Grant Sherfield and Desmond Cambridge, Jr. were recognized by the league's head coaches.

Sherfield, a sophomore point guard, was voted the Mountain West Newcomer of the Year, marking the fourth time in five seasons that a member of the Wolf Pack had collected the honor. Sherfield, who was also tabbed to the All-Mountain West First Team, joins Marcus Marshall (2016-17), Caleb Martin (2018-19), and Jalen Harris (2019-20) as fellow top newcomer winners. His selection to the First Team also marks five-straight seasons in which the Wolf Pack has been represented in that quintet.

This season, Sherfield, who transferred to Nevada following the 2019-20 campaign and was granted immediate eligibility in the fall, paced not only all Mountain West newcomers, but the entire conference in scoring (18.2 ppg), assists (113 total and 6.65 apg), free-throw percentage (88.9 percent), and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.51) in Mountain West-only competition.

He scored at least 20 points in nine of Nevada's 17 conference contests, and had at least six assists in nine contests.

Sherfield also created key moments for the Pack in his debut season, hitting game-winning shots in the final seconds in wins over Boise State (74-72) on Feb. 5 and Colorado State (85-82) on March 5.

Cambridge, Jr., also in his first season in the Mountain West, proved difficult for opposing defenses. After sitting out the 2019-20 campaign following his transfer from Brown, Cambridge, Jr. was a factor from the first game of conference play, going for 23 points in his league debut, and going on to score in double figures in 15 of 17 games, including four 20-point performances.

He averaged 16.4 points a game, sixth-best in conference play, and also ranked in the MW-only top 10 in 3-point field-goal percentage (35.5, third), 3-pointers made (44, t-fourth), and field-goal percentage (41.3, eighth).

NEVADA AT THE MOUNTAIN WEST TOURNAMENT
This year's Mountain West Tournament will be Nevada's eighth since joining the conference ahead of the 2012-13 season. The Pack is 6-7 all-time at the event, with one title (2017). The Wolf Pack is 5-2 all-time in quarterfinal play.

Head coach Steve Alford has an overall record of 8-5 at the event (8-4 with New Mexico from 2008-13, 0-1 with Nevada), with two titles to his ledger (2012-13).

AGAINST THE TOP FOUR
Thursday's quarterfinal marks Nevada's eighth game this season against one of the top four teams in the conference's final regular-season standings. In the regular season, the Wolf Pack went 3-4 against those teams, with a sweep of Boise State (Feb. 5-7) and a win in the lone meeting with Colorado State (March 5).

Of the Pack's four losses in those games, only one came by double digits, that being Feb. 28's 87-66 loss at Utah State. The other three losses (two at San Diego State, one at Utah State) came by a combined total of 10 points, and were one-possession games in the final 30 seconds.

"MR. CLUTCH" DOES IT AGAIN
Sophomore point guard Grant Sherfield has created quite the highlight reel of clutch shots and moments over just 24 games in a Nevada uniform. March 5 against Colorado State, Sherfield hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 1.0 second remaining to give the Pack the 85-82 win. It was his third (third!) game-winner within the final six seconds this season.

In the series opener against Boise State on Feb. 5, Sherfield scored the final four Wolf Pack points, capping it with the game-winning fadeaway with 2.9 seconds left for the 74-72 win.

Along with Feb. 5's winner, Sherfield hit the game-winning 3-pointer with six seconds left in Nevada's 69-66 win at Nebraska on Nov. 26. Jan. 9 at San Diego State, Sherfield hit another triple with six seconds left to tie the game at 67-67, before the Aztecs' Trey Pulliam hit a buzzer-beater to steal the win.