Las Cruces, N.M. ?“ The New Mexico State men?™s basketball team overcame a 12-point second half deficit to drop the Hawai?™i Rainbow Warriors 87-84, Saturday night in the Pan American Center. The Aggies have now won back-to-back games for the first time this season and scored a season high in points as they improve to 7-8 overall and 3-1 in WAC play while the Rainbows fall to 8-6 overall and 2-2 in WAC games.
Tyrone Nelson (Hempstead, Texas) recorded his seventh double-double of the season as he led the team with 28 points and 11 rebounds while four Aggies in all scored in double figures. Elijah Ingram (East Orange, N.J.) added 21 points while David Fisher (Dallas, Texas) scored 15 and Mike Mitchell (San Antonio, Texas) dropped in 11 on 3-of-4 three-pointers. As a team, NMSU shot 50 percent from the floor and 50 percent from the beyond the arc hitting 7-of-14 baskets while going 22-for-26 from the charity stripe for 81 percent.
Julian Sensley led Hawai?™i with 32 points while Matt Lojeski added 12 and the Rainbows shot 56 percent from the field. Hawai?™i had troubles from the free throw line as they shot only 62 percent and hit only 33 percent for their three-point baskets.
Other highlights:
Utah State 83, Idaho 58
LOGAN, Utah - Four Aggies, led by Jaycee Carroll, scored in double figures as Utah State turned a close game into a blowout, defeating Idaho 83-58 in men's basketball action here Saturday night.
Carroll scored a team-high 19 points, including 14 in the second half as the Aggies improved to 11-4 overall and 3-2 in the Western Athletic Conference. Idaho fell to 3-11 and 0-4. USU has now won seven of its last eight games. In addition, the Aggies have won 11 straight home games dating back to last season.
After a tight first half where USU led by just 23-20 with 6:15 remaining, Cass Matheus turned into a one-man scoring show for the Aggies. The 6-10 center proceeded to score 12 of USU's next 17 points spilling into the second half as the Aggies went on a 19-5 run to push their lead to 44-27 early in the second period.
USU pushed the margin to as many as 30 points at 76-46 and coasted to the victory, its 18th in the last 21 meetings between the two schools.
Matheus finished with 14 points in the game on six of nine shooting and was one rebound shy of recording a double-double. Matheus, who also added two blocks, played just 20 minutes in the contest.
Nevada 81, Boise State 67
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Nick Fazekas scored 20 points and pulled down 10 rebounds as Nevada beat Boise State 81-67 on Saturday night.
Fazekas, a junior forward who is the reigning Western Athletic Conference player of the year, was perfect all night, hitting 9-of-9 from the field and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line. He also had four assists.
Nevada (13-3, 3-1) took control of the game with a 10-0 run early to make it 14-5. The Wolf Pack never looked back, outscoring Boise State (8-7, 1-3) over a nine-minute stretch 25-3 in the first half.
The Wolf Pack led by as many as 31 points during the game.
Kyle Shiloh scored 17 points off the bench for Nevada, which avenged a first-round loss in the WAC tournament to the Broncos a season ago. Mo Charlo added 11 points.
Boise State's Tyler Tiedeman led all scorers with 24 points.
Louisiana Tech 73, Fresno State 54
RUSTON ?“ The Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (11-6; 4-0 WAC) remained perfect in Western Athletic Conference play Saturday night as they blew out the visiting Fresno State Bulldogs (8-6; 1-2 WAC) in the Thomas Assembly Center 73-54 in front of a crowd of 2,860.
The Tech Bulldogs wasted no time getting on the offensive and amassed a 12-0 lead before Fresno State scored their first points with 16:23 in the first half.
"Our defensive play was tremendous," Louisiana Tech head coach Keith Richard said. "We guarded the three-point line well in the first half which was a big key, then I knew we could we force them to put the ball on the ground. We didn?™t give up lay-ups, which was good."
Fresno State shot 0-7 from three-point land in the first half as Tech went into the halftime locker room with a 38-22 lead.
"We got off to a big start," Richard said. "Our press really got our motor running."
Tech?™s defense held Fresno State?™s two leading scorers, Ja?™Vance Coleman and Quinton Hosley, to a total of only six points. They both came in tonight averaging 19.3 points per game apiece.