Boise State 99, Sacramento State 66
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Reggie Larry scored 24 points and had 11 rebounds as Boise State defeated Sacramento State 99-66 in a non-conference game Saturday.
The Broncos (5-4) climbed above .500 for the first time this season and remained undefeated at home.
It was the second time the Broncos have scored more than 90 points this season, and fans booed when Sacramento State held the ball the last 30 seconds to prevent Boise State from getting 100.
Haron Hargrave led the overmatched Hornets (5-7) with 16 points, scoring 13 of them in the second half. Loren Leath added 14.
Coby Karl added 19 points and eight assists for Boise State and Matt Nelson had 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and three blocks.
The Broncos finished out the first half with Larry's 3-pointer off the backboard from just inside half court at the buzzer as Boise State took a 53-30 lead into the break.
It could have been even worse for the Hornets but Leath came off the bench to score all 14 of his points in the first half, hitting four of five 3-point tries.
But the Broncos hit nine of 13 3's in the first half, and shot 72 percent from the floor. Except for Leath, the Hornets struggled for open shots and hit only 38 percent.
Sacramento State opened the second half with an 8-0 run - six of the points scored by Hargrave - to cut Boise State's lead to 53-38.
After a Boise State time-out, Nelson scored the Broncos' first points nearly three minutes into the half to make it 55-38
The Broncos dashed any hopes of a Sacramento State comeback with a 12-4 run, capped by Anthony Thomas' steal and lob pass that Larry caught above the rim and dunked, his fourth dunk of the game, to make it make it 81-56 with 8:21 remaining.
For the game, Boise State shot 63 percent, and hit 12 of 24 3-pointers. Sacramento State shot 38 percent and hit five of 18 3-point attempts.
Fresno State 69, Creighton 54
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Hector Hernandez's 14 points led a balanced scoring effort as Fresno State remained unbeaten at home Saturday night with a 69-54 victory over Creighton.
Eddie Miller scored 13 points and Kevin Bell added 12 for Fresno State, which improved to 9-1 overall. Dominic McGuire's 14 rebounds and seven blocks spearheaded a defensive effort that limited the Bluejays to 31.3 percent shooting.
The Bulldogs, picked third in the Western Athletic Conference, led nearly from start to finish, including an 11-point bulge in the second half before Creighton (4-3) pulled to within 47-41 with 10:34 left.
But Ja'Vance Coleman answered with consecutive 3-pointers from the top of the key, giving Fresno State ample cushion for the stretch run. Coleman finished with 10 points and seven assists as the Bulldogs won their first game in six meetings against Creighton.
The Bluejays struggled offensively against a longer, quicker Fresno State team that blocked 10 shots. Anthony Tolliver had a game-high 18 points and Nate Funk added 13 for Creighton, one of the preseason favorites in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Fresno State returns to action on Tuesday, when it hosts Stanford at 7 p.m. at the Save Mart Center.
Hawai'i 89, Northwestern State 78
HONOLULU - With the help of a 21-3 second half run, the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team held off Northwestern State, 89-78, Saturday night, in a non-conference game at the Stan Sheriff Center.
The Rainbow Warriors (5-4) led by as many as 20 in the first half but saw their lead dwindle to five, five minutes into the second period. From there, UH scored 15 unanswered to push its lead to 20 and the Demons never got within 10 the rest of the way.
Junior guard Bobby Nash had his first career double-double. His 22 points and 11 rebounds were both career highs. Nash finished 8-of-14 from the field, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range. Senior guard Matt Lojeski led the 'Bows with a career-high 25 points while guard Riley Luettgerodt came off the bench and scored 13. Guard Matt Gibson added 14 points, five rebounds and two steals.
The game also featured some fireworks as NW State coach Mike McConathy was ejected at the 11:50 mark in the second half with UH leading 57-37 following his second technical foul.
Nash scored six of UH's first nine points as the 'Bows built a five point lead to start the game. UH extended its lead to 23-5 following a 14-0 run sparked by three straight 3-pointers including two by Nash.
The 'Bows led by as many as 20 in the first half and took a 36-23 advantage at the break. Nash led all scorers with 16 points and made all three of his 3-point attempts. UH held the Demons to 20 percent shooting.
NW State nearly erased the deficit five minutes into the second half. The Demons out-scored UH, 14-6, to pull within 42-37. But that would be as close they would get as UH scored the next 15 straight to extend its lead back to 20.
The Demons (5-5) were led by Luke Rogers' 22 points.
The 'Bows next host the 43rd Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic, Dec. 20-23, at the Stan Sheriff Center. UH opens the tournament against San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 20. Tip-off is 7:30 p.m.
North Dakota State 79, Idaho 59
FARGO, N.D. ? Darin Nagle scored 20 points in his Vandal debut, but the University of Idaho men’s basketball team suffered a 79-59 loss at North Dakota State.
Nagle shot 6-of-15 from the field and hit four 3-pointers to pick up the offense after Keoni Watson, Idaho’s leading scorer at 17.9 points per game, left the contest with an ankle injury after playing just over 10 minutes.
“We get Darin and we lose Keoni. I don’t know, but I don’t think that is very fair,” Idaho coach George Pfeifer said. “The basketball gods have not been very kind to us.”
North Dakota State (6-3) scored the first basket of the game and Idaho (1-9) quickly took its first lead of the contest on a Nagle 3-pointer. The teams traded leads three more times before the Bison moved ahead for good at 7-5 with 17:39 remaining in the first half. North Dakota State continued on a 12-0 run to build a 16-5 advantage at the 14:51 mark, but Idaho responded with a 9-2 run capped by another Nagle 3-point field goal to pull within 18-14 with 11:15 remaining in the half. The teams traded baskets before North Dakota State pulled away again with a 14-3 run, making the score 34-19 at the 4:29 mark. The closest the Vandals would come for the remainder of the half was 38-27 on a made 3-pointer by Miles Webb as time ran out in the first half.
Michael Crowell nailed a 3-point field goal to start the scoring in the second half and Idaho pulled to within 38-30. The Bison never wavered, although the Vandals came within seven points at 44-37 with 15:49 remaining and trailed by just eight points at 54-46 with 10:33 remaining in the contest. At that point, North Dakota State broke the game open with a 16-2 run to go ahead 70-48 with 5:26 remaining. The closest Idaho would come for the remainder of the game would be 19 points on three occasions before the Bison earned the 20 point victory.
“There are some issues which are on-going issues,” Pfeifer said. “For example, we can’t give 13 offensive rebounds to a team who is shooting right at 50-percent. In a game like this where you are trying to come back we don’t need to just hit the big shots, we need to hit the open shots. Turnovers are rebounding were key tonight.”
As much as Idaho was hurt with Watson on the bench, the team hurt itself with 18 turnovers which led to 28 points for North Dakota State. The Vandals scored just seven points on 10 Bison turnovers.
Nagle hit four of his first six 3-point attempts and also added two blocks to his team-high point total. The Vandals had 23 points off the bench in the game, led by Webb and Trevor Morris each with eight.
“Darin did some good things,” Pfeifer said. “We knew we were going to go through the growing pains not only with him learning the system, but also with other players adjusting to playing with him. It is nice to have him and we plan to do some big things with him. We had people asking why we started him after having just one practice with him and that was because we now have two practices with him. He is obviously a special player and as time goes on everyone will start to learn his gifts.”
The preliminary word on Watson is he suffered a sprained ankle and should be ready to go for Idaho’s next contest at Eastern Washington.
The Vandals face the Eagles at Reese Court at Cheney, Wash., Thursday (Dec. 22) at 7:05 p.m.
Southern 62, Louisiana Tech 47
BATON ROUGE, La. - The Southern Jaguars (1-10) paid the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (2-7) back for a loss the weekend prior with a 62-47 win in the F. G. Clark Center Saturday night.
“We talked all week about how Southern was going to be a step quicker since this was a home game for them,” Tech head coach Keith Richard said. “We needed to match that. We were ready to play, but it’s such a struggle for us to score. We took a step back today offensively.”
Tech struck first with a bucket in the paint from senior Harry Disy at the 19:01 mark. Southern answered on the ensuing passion with a three-pointer from junior Joe Holliday with 18:36 on the clock. Junior Geri Guillory added a jumper to give Southern a 5-2 lead with 17:54 in the first half.
Senior Chad McKenzie cut Southern’s lead to 5-4 with a lay-up from senior Terry Parker, Jr., at the 16:35 mark. The Jaguars put together a 17-0 run before senior Trey McDowell hit a lay-up with 9:50 left to go in the half to put the score at 22-6.
The Bulldogs found an offensive spurt for the remainder of the first half and outscored the Jags 15-9 to trail by only 10 points with the score 31-21 at halftime.
“We’re going to have to come up with something to help them offensively,” Richard said. “You have to be able to score to win ball games. That’s what happened to us early on tonight.”
Disy opened the second half with a lay-up much like the first and cut the Southern lead to eight. The Bulldogs, however, could not cut the lead any closer for the remainder of the game and the Jaguars would go on to win their first game of the season.
Tech was led by McDowell with 12 points and McKenzie with 10. Southern was led by freshman Douglass Scott with 17.
The Bulldogs return to action Thursday, Dec. 21, in the CenturyTel Center in Shreveport, La., against the Centenary Gents at 7 p.m.
Nevada 60, Pacific 53
RENO, Nev. (AP) - The 25th-ranked Wolf Pack's shooting the first half was as cold as the Sierra snowstorm outside, but Marcelus Kemp scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half and helped spark an 18-2 run to beat Pacific 60-53 Saturday night.
Kemp made 4-of-8 from 3-point range and Nick Fazekas added 13 points and 10 rebounds for Nevada (9-1), which held Pacific scoreless over a 4-minute stretch early in the second half.
Steffan Johnson scored 13 points and Solomon HorseChief and Anthony Brown had 10 each for the Tigers (3-8), who have lost four in a row and seven of their last eight.
The game started 10 minutes late because the officials were delayed in the storm that dumped more than a half-foot of snow and restricted travel on highways. More than 10,000 tickets were sold for the game, but only 5,250 fans attended.
Nevada shot only 33 percent the first half _ 1-of-7 3-pointers _ but was 7-of-14 from behind the arc the second half while shooting 50 percent from the field.
Nevada coach Mark Fox blamed the slow start on the end of the semester.
"We looked like a team that was in the middle of final exams," he said. "We didn't execute the things we were trying to do. I told them to get back to the game plan. Keep it simple. We were able to do that the second half."
Kyle Shiloh had 11 points and Ramon Sessions 11 points and eight assists for the Wolf Pack, who have rallied from behind in several games already this year. They outscored St. Mary's 13-1 the first 4 minutes of the second half in Tuesday night's victory, went on a 10-0 run against UC Irvine, 17-0 against Alaska-Anchorage and had a 17-2 stretch in the second half before suffering their only loss to UNLV last Saturday, 58-49.
"Kemp and Shiloh made some big shots in the second half and we have to give credit to them," Pacific coach Bob Thomason said.
"We needed to capitalize on the big baskets and we would have had a bigger lead. We also needed to take advantage of open shots and the fast break opportunities," he said.
Kemp said the team did a poor job of running its offense the first half.
"Myself, I was taking some bad shots. At halftime, coach let us know about it," Kemp said. "So in the second half we tried to run the offense and move the ball around and get some good looks," he said.
Fazekas said surges of momentum in the second half are "definitely contagious."
"We're a team and there are five of us playing out there. Coach is trying to get us a bunch of good looks. When one guys is hitting it feels like the bucket is that much bigger for you. It's a team game."
The Wolf Pack trailed 29-22 but opened the second half with the 18-2 run, including two 3-pointers each by Kemp and Shiloh and one by Fazekas, to take a 40-31 lead with 14:27 remaining.
Wolfgang Rafferty and Michael White made a pair of 3-point goals to cut it to 40-37, but Kemp hit another 3 and Fazekas scored inside to make it 51-41 at 7:49.
Pacific followed with a 7-0 run, including Anthony Esparza's 3-pointer and White's breakaway layup to pull to 51-48 with 4:28 left. But Fazekas scored inside off a pass from Sessions and Kemp made his fourth 3-pointer to make it 56-48 at 3:16.
Johnson followed Esparza's two free throws with a 12-footer to cut it to 56-53 at 1:07. But Sessions hit Denis Ikovlev with a pass inside for a basket and converted both ends of a one-and-one with 12 seconds left to secure the victory over the Tigers, who had beat Nevada eight of the last 11 times they played.
Nevada led 6-0 but HorseChief scored 10 points on a 12-2 run, including two 3-pointers, to put Pacific ahead 20-14 with 8:49 left in the half. Nevada answered with an 8-2 run to tie it 22-22 on JaVale McGee's baseline jumper at 2:14, but Brown made a pair of free throws and Johnson hit a bank shot just before the half to give Pacific the lead 26-22.
Casey Neimeyer made a hook in the lane on the first possession of the second half, was fouled and made the free throw to give Pacific its biggest lead, 29-22. But Shiloh, Kemp and Fazekas made consecutive 3-pointers to start the 18-2 run that put the Wolf Pack ahead for good.
New Mexico State 68, UTEP 62
EL PASO, Texas (AP) - Elijah Ingram scored 15 points off the bench to help New Mexico State beat UTEP 68-62 Saturday night for its sixth straight win.
New Mexico State (7-3) also beat UTEP (5-5) 71-69 last Saturday in New Mexico.
Ingram was 4-of-6 from 3-point range for the Aggies, who won despite hitting just 25-of-43 free throws.
UTEP's Stefon Jackson had 21 points, and Darren Clarke added 14 points off the bench.
New Mexico State's Fred Peete had 12 points, and Tyrone Nelson added 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Led by Ingram, the Aggies bench scored 30 points.
Brigham Young 75, Utah State 62
PROVO, Utah - Utah State basketball's eight-game winning streak overall and its season unbeaten mark against in-state foes was snapped with a 75-62 loss to Brigham Young Saturday afternoon at the Marriott Center. The loss also halted the Aggies' win streak against the Cougars at four in a row.
The loss drops the Aggies to 8-2 on the year, while BYU snapped its two-game losing skid and evened their record at 5-5 overall. The win was BYU's 19th-straight at home, tied for the fifth-longest home court winning streak in the country.
Saturday was Utah State's first loss to an in-state foe this season as the Aggies are now 4-1 against teams from the state of Utah. USU has won 10 of its last 12 against in-state foes and are now 18-6 against the state of Utah over the last seven years.
Junior guard Jaycee Carroll, USU's leading scorer entering the game, was held to a season-low 16 points and led the Aggies with seven rebounds. Carroll did not make a three-pointer for the second game in a row, marking just the second time in his career that has had back-to-back games without a trey, dating back to his freshman season.
Three of BYU's starters scored in double-figures, led by Trent Plaisted with 18 points, while Keena Young tallied 15 points to go with a game-high 12 rebounds, and Jimmy Balderson tossed in 10 points.
Three other Aggies tallied double-digits, led by senior forward Chris Session netting a career-high 12 points to go with a career-high five steals, while junior forward Michael Earl tallied a season-high with 10 points after not scoring in the previous five games. Fellow junior forward Stephen DuCharme matched Earl with 10 points.
After the game opened with the teams trading baskets, BYU pulled away from a 6-6 tie with a 15-5 run to open a double-digit lead at 21-11 after a three-pointer from Lee Cummard at 10:55. The Cougars' lead swelled to its largest of the half at 14 after a jumper by Young to make it 26-12 with 8:42 to go.
After an Aggie timeout, USU scored six unanswered points started by a jumper from Session, followed by a layup by fellow senior forward Chaz Spicer and then a pair of Carroll free throws. That would be the closest Utah State would get for the rest of the first stanza, as BYU pushed its lead back to 14 on two different occasions.
The Aggies again mounted a rally that was capped by a Session bucket at 1:15 to pull Utah State within, 36-28.
With time winding down in the half, the Aggie defense appeared to have held the deficit at eight, but Ainge was fouled on a three-point attempt at the buzzer. After an officials conference that included reviewing the play, Ainge was awarded three free throws, hitting two of them to put BYU ahead, 38-28 at the half.
Utah State trimmed the margin down to 10 on three different times early in the second half, the last at 44-34 after a putback by Session at 17:02. The Aggies' deficit grew to its largest of the game at 71-51 with 5:16 to go in the game after a free throw by Plaistad and the Cougars coasted to the win.
The Aggies shot a season-low 36.1 percent from the field, but hit a season-high 90.0 percent (18-20) at the free throw line, marking the first time this season that USU has lost when shooting better than the opponent at the free throw line.
Utah State missed all 11 of its three-point attempts, snapping the Aggies' streak of games with at least one three-pointer at 127 straight, dating back to USU's last loss to BYU, Dec. 14, 2002 on the same floor as Saturday's contest. That game was also the last time that BYU held an opponent without a three-pointer.
BYU shot a warmish 28-55 (50.9 percent) field goal shooting, including 6-16 (37.5 percent) behind the three-point arc. At the charity stripe, the Cougars hit 13-25 (52.0 percent).
BYU also had a 39-35 rebounding edge, marking just the third time this season that USU has been outrebounded.
The Aggies return to the friendly confines of the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum to host IPFW on Thursday, Dec. 21 at 7:05 p.m.
Contact the USU Athletics Ticket Office at (435) 797-0305 or at 1-888-U-STATE-1 (1-888-878-2831) for ticket information.
Fans can listen to Utah State men's basketball games live on KVNU 610 AM in Logan and on 1320 AM or 1230 AM in Salt Lake City.