The Nevada men’s basketball team lost to Boise State, 91-87 in overtime on Tuesday night at Extra Mile Arena to fall to 16-7 overall and 8-4 in the Mountain West. Here are three takeaways from Nevada’s loss to the Broncos.

1. Corey Camper Jr. might be league bound

The beginning of the Nevada-Boise State men’s basketball game felt like a Wolf Pack-Broncos football matchup as Boise State took a 30-10 lead — that was the final score of the 2011 football game — in the first 12 minutes. Nevada’s biggest issue during that period — outside of a leaky defense and poor rebounding — was the lack of shots for Corey Camper Jr. Coming off a career-high 32-point game in the win over UNLV on Saturday, Camper didn’t attempt a shot until 7 minutes, 42 seconds into the game. He attempted just one shot in the first 12:28, at which point Nevada trailed by 20. That simply can’t happen to your best scorer. Once Camper started getting shots, he caught fire. The senior guard made his first five attempts and had 14 points at halftime. He added 17 more points in the second half and four in overtime for a career-best 35 points on 14-of-22 shooting, including 5-of-10 from three.

On Monday’s NSN Tonight, I said Camper looks like an NBA player. And one day later, he proved why. Camper showed his wide range of offensive abilities to keep Nevada in this game until Tayshawn Comer got hot (he finished with 24 points, including 22 in the second half/overtime). In his fifth college season after two years in junior college and two at UTEP, Camper’s offensive game has blossomed at Nevada. He’s averaging 17.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.3 steals per game, shooting 49.6/44.9/78.2. He was phenomenal against Boise State and is averaging 22.8 points in the last eight games, making 57 percent of his shots and 55.1 percent of his threes.

At 6-foot-5 and 181 pounds, Camper isn’t quite as big as Kobe Sanders (6-8/207), who starred for the Wolf Pack last year before being a second-round NBA draft pick. He hasn’t been asked to handle as much playmaking duties as Sanders, either. But Camper is a better shooter and defender than Sanders was last season, and Sanders has had a rock solid rookie season with the Clippers. Camper didn’t start the season on NBA draft radars, but he belongs there now.

(I also own an apology to Boise State’s Dylan Andrews. The first key to victory in my pregame preview was, “The more shots Andrews takes, the better for Nevada.” The UCLA transfer had really been struggling this season. But against Nevada, he had a team-high 25 points on 7-of-12 shooting, adding six assists and three rebounds. Andrews hit the game’s biggest shot, a go-ahead 3-pointer with 43 seconds left, and added two game-sealing free throws with 6 seconds left. Andrews deserve a postgame shoutout after some pregame shade.)

2. Nevada’s never-give-up attitude shines (but the bench)

While the Wolf Pack was not able to snare a second miracle win in as many midweek games, Nevada’s never-give-up attitude was on full display again. The Wolf Pack’s early-game no-show dropped the team into a 20-point deficit, which most teams will not come back from on the road. But Nevada kept chipping away, solved its rebounding issues, found an offensive groove and surged into the lead with 7 minutes, 27 seconds remaining. Credit Comer, who scored 14 points during an 18-3 run that put the Wolf Pack ahead. It was also Comer who hit the game-tying 15-foot floater as time expired in regulation after Andrew Meadow missed two free throws with 5.9 seconds left to keep Nevada in the game. Yes, Comer was unable to hit the game-tying shot with 12 seconds left in overtime, missing a 20-foot fadeaway. But Nevada is not in overtime without Comer. The Wolf Pack was unable to complete the comeback, but the team’s resolve in adverse situations remains strong, and that will win you a lot of games. The big issue against Boise State was the bench, which scored just three points in 56 minutes while shooting 1-of-12 from the field. That forced Camper and Elijah Price to play 42 minutes each.

3. Wolf Pack still looking to break glass ceiling

The loss at Boise State moved Nevada to 0-5 in Quad 1 games and 0-6 in “Quality Games,” as measured by BartTorvik. The Wolf Pack is also 0-5 against top-50 NET teams and 2-6 against top-90 NET teams. Those wins were the miracle victory against Grand Canyon, which was on the road, down two starters and made a series of late mistakes to allow Nevada to win, as well as the Mountain West opener against Boise State, a dominant Wolf Pack victory. After Nevada went 1-10 against NCAA Tournament teams last year, the same struggles are prevalent this season. The Wolf Pack is 0-5 against teams in or on the fringes of the tournament, those being losses to Utah State, San Diego State, New Mexico, Santa Clara and Washington. Nevada has three more chances to break through that glass ceiling with games remaining at San Diego State and home against Utah State and New Mexico. The biggest issue in these “Quality Games” has been Nevada’s defense. The Wolf Pack ranks 46th in the nation in overall offensive efficiency and 76th in offensive efficiency in “Quality Games.” Nevada is 96th in overall defensive efficiency but 190th in defensive efficiency in “Quality Games.” This is not an effort issue as Nevada plays hard and plays together. But if the Wolf Pack is going to make the NCAA Tournament by winning the MW Tournament, it will have to find a way to start beating these elite MW teams.

Columnist Chris Murray provides insight on Northern Nevada sports. Contact him at crmurray@sbgtv.com or follow him on Twitter @ByChrisMurray.