Nevada got some improved shooting Tuesday night and that allowed the entire Wolf Pack roster to see some minutes and a score or two. The result was a 95-39 Nevada romp over Sonoma State Tuesday night at Lawlor Events Center.

This scoring gap was Nevada's largest margin of victory in fifth-year coach Mark Fox's tenure. The last margin close to that magnitude was in Fox's first game as head coach, Nov. 20, 2004 — a 55-point win over CU-Colorado Springs, 88-33.

The Wolf Pack took a quick lead against a weak Sonoma State opponent, 6-0, before Curtis Harrison put the Seawolves on the board, making just the first of two free throws.

Nevada (4-4) simply outshot and outscored its guests. Both teams took 34 shots in the first half. Nevada made 21 of those shots, shooting 61.8 percent, while Sonoma State only made nine.

Nevada went on a 13-0 run, capped by a Richie Phillips layup, and went up 42-18. Brandon Fields blocked a shot but Nevada gave up the ball in transition, allowing the Seawolves' Ben Washington to force in a layup to trail by 22. Nevada led the Seawolves 49-22 at halftime. On Saturday against UNLV, Nevada scored just 22 points in the first 20 minutes.

Nevada's shooting prowess decreased slightly in the second half, as it slowed to shooting 41.7 percent. Sonoma shot a dismal 19.4 percent on 6-of-31 from the floor.

Nevada started off the half on an 8-0 run to lead 57-24. Four of the points came off of free throws. Sonoma State ran into foul trouble early on, to put Nevada in a bonus situation for the majority of the half, nearly 15 minutes of it. Nevada shot 31 free throws in the game, 27 of which came in the second half.

Luke Babbitt extended the Wolf Pack's lead to 45 with a 3-pointer to avoid a shot-clock violation. Malik Cooke put in a layup followed by a Ray Kraemer three for an 80-30 lead.

Nevada shot 50 percent from beyond the arc. Sonoma State shot 13 percent. Overall, Nevada shot 53.4 percent from the floor compared to Saturday's 34 percent showing.

“We played a defensive team from a low level,” Fox said on the improved shooting numbers. “It was a little easier for us to get the baskets we should've got. We're still growing offensively.”

Babbitt led all scorers with 16 points. He also had 7 rebounds. Cooke and Armon Johnson each tallied 14 points while Joey Shaw added 10 for Nevada.

Nevada dominated the stat sheet over Sonoma and out-rebounded the Seawolves 52-38. Nevada had 24 assists to go with 12 blocks and 10 steals.

“We played better defense as a team,” Brandon Fields said. “That's our main goal.”

Fox felt that defense was a key in the game, saying his team's goal was to hold Sonoma State under 50 points.

“Our focus was that we were going to defend for 40 minutes,” Fox said. “We wanted to keep them under 50.”

The Wolf Pack bench produced, scoring 45 points compared to SSU's 12.

“They needed that,” Fox said about Nevada's bench play. “With a young team, those kids hadn't had that many minutes. They needed that time. Richie Phillips made a couple nice plays. Ahyaro (Phillips) certainly had a nice effort on the boards. Dario (Hunt) was better the second half, got two quick fouls in the first half. There are still lots of things to learn from.”

Nevada tied last season's game high for most steals in a game and beat its record of blocked shots in game. The best previous blocked shots performance was Jan. 17, 2008 when it had 11 against Idaho. The Wolf Pack had 12 against Sonoma State.

Nevada, which improved to 6-0 all time against SSU, has two more games at home before hitting the road again. The Wolf Pack hosts Southern Illinois Sunday at 3:05 p.m. in the third of four home games.