The WAC had four teams compete in BracketBusters presented by eBay, and those four teams posted a 3-1 mark. On Friday night, Nevada reached the 20 win mark with an 88-61 victory over Akron. On Saturday, Louisiana Tech picked up a huge win at Southern Illinois, 54-51, while Utah State defeated Northwestern State, 66-63. Fresno State dropped the only game, 67-62, at Creighton.
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BracketBusters Recaps
Nevada 88, Akron 61
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Nick Fazekas had 24 points and 14 rebounds and Kyle Shiloh added a career-high 22 points as Nevada clinched its third straight 20-win season Friday with a non-conference victory over Akron 88-61.
Mo Charlo scored 14 points and Ramon Sessions had eight points and a career-high 13 assists for the Wolf Pack (20-5, 9-3), who have won seven in a row and are in first place in the Western Athletic Conference.
Romeo Travis had 13 points, the only player in double figures for the Mid-American Conference's Zips (19-6, 12-2), who suffered their biggest margin of defeat of the season, eclipsing a 111-85 loss at Louisville on Dec. 10.
It was Fazekas' 12th double-double of the season, the 35th of the junior's career. Shiloh made 6-of-8 3-pointers and Nevada shot 53 percent from the field - a season-best 12-of-19 from 3-point range - to Akron's 32 percent from the field.
Nevada went on a 17-2 run midway through the first half and scored the first six points of the second half to go ahead 55-31 on a basket inside by Fazekas, who added a 3-point goal a minute later for a 61-37 lead with 17:09 left in the game.
Nick Dials scored five straight points on a 7-0 run that pulled Akron to within 64-48 at 10:43. But Marcelus Kemp - who finished with 11 points - answered with a 3-pointer to spark a 10-2 run capped by Shiloh's 3-pointer that put Nevada back on top 74-50 with 7:47 remaining and Akron didn't threaten after that.
Louisiana Tech 54, Southern Illinois 51
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- In an electric afternoon in SIU Arena, the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs were able to perform a rare feat: beat Southern Illinois at home.
Louisiana Tech (17-10; 9-4 WAC) was able to knock off the Southern Illinois Salukis (18-9; 11-5 MVC) 54-51 in front of a crowd of 9,168 Saturday, Feb. 18, in ESPN2?™s BracketBuster game.
After a sluggish start offensively, the Bulldogs?™ defensive really shined throughout the remainder of the game and help the Salukis to under their scoring average.
The Bulldogs were led by Millsap with 25 points (17 in the second half) and six rebounds, less than half his game average, while McKenzie added eight points and eight boards.
Falker led the scoring for the Salukis with 13 points, while Shaw and Tatum added 12 points apiece.
The Bulldogs return to action Feb. 23, in Las Cruces, N. M., at 8:05 p.m. to take on the New Mexico State Aggies in the first of three final conference games for Tech?™s 2005-06 season.
Utah State 66, Northwestern State 63
LOGAN, Utah - Nate Harris scored a game-high 27 points, including 19 in the second-half to lead Utah State to a come-from-behind 66-63 win against Northwestern State in the fourth annual ESPN Bracket Busters presented by eBay here Saturday night.
Utah State improves to 18-6 overall with the win, while Northwestern State had its eight-game winning streak snapped a falls to 18-7 on the year with the loss.
Northwestern State raced out to an early nine-point advantage at 15-6 with 14:48 remaining and went into the locker room up 13 at 34-21 as it shot 46.2 percent from the field and 50.0 percent from three-point range, making 6-12 shots from behind the arc. Conversely, Utah State shot just 34.8 percent in the opening period, and made just 1-8 three-pointers.
Utah State scored the first nine points of the second-half to cut the lead to four at 34-30 before Northwestern State got its advantage back up to 11 at 49-38 with 10:25 remaining. Utah State then went on an 11-0 run over the next 2:36 to tie the game at 49 with 7:49 to go.
With Northwestern State leading 58-52 with 4:41 remaining, Utah State went on a 10-3 run over the next 2:50 to take its first lead in nearly 36 minutes at 62-61 on a free throw from Chaz Spicer. With USU up one, the Demons got two free throws from Tyronn Mitchell to go ahead 63-62 with :57 seconds remaining. Jaycee Carroll was then fouled on Utah State's next possession and made both free throws to give the home team a one-point advantage. On the following possession, Clifton Lee was fouled for Northwestern State, but missed both free throws with :11 seconds remaining. Carroll was then fouled and converted two more free throws with :07 seconds remaining to give USU the come-from-behind three point win.
Carroll finished the game with 19 points, while Harris added a season-high tying 12 rebounds to go along with his 27 points, as he recorded his fifth double-double of the year.
Northwestern State was led by Lee who had 20 points, while Jermaine Wallace scored 12.
Utah State will return to Western Athletic Conference action as it travels to Boise State (13-12, 5-8) on Thur., Feb. 23 at 7:35 p.m. (MT). USU's next home game will be on Sat., Feb. 25 when it host Nevada (20-5, 9-3) at 7:05 p.m. in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
Creighton 67, Fresno State 62
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) -- Anthony Tolliver scored 17 points and two other Bluejays scored in double figures to lead Creighton to a 67-62 BracketBusters victory before a state-record crowd of 15,700 at the Qwest Center over Fresno State.
The Bulldogs' Quinton Hosley led all players in points (19) and rebounds (10) as he notched the only double-double of the game.
While CU also had 13 points from Johnny Mathies and 12 from Nick Porter, Creighton (18-7) never trailed while improving its record at home to 13-1 this season.
For Fresno State, Dwight O'Neil had 17 points and Ja'Vance Coleman chipped in 12 as the 'Dogs dropped to 13-11 overall.
Trailing by nine, the Bulldogs started the second half with an 11-4 run, making three 3-pointers to close to 39-37. But an 11-2 run by the Bluejays made it 50-39 with 13:09 to play.
Fresno State clawed back and, after Creighton missed two straight layups, back-to-back 3-pointer by Donovan Morris brought the Bulldogs within three with 9:36 left.
It was 54-51 with 5:18 to play when Creighton used a 10-3 run to go ahead 64-54 with 1:44 left.
The Bulldogs, who had nine 3-pointers to Creighton's four, closed to 64-60 with six straight points, but Porter made two free throws with 22 seconds left to offset a layup by O'Neil.
Creighton got out to a 14-2 lead. The quick burst was highlighted by two 3-pointers by Jimmy Motz and one by Mathies. The Bulldogs cut the deficit to six with three 3-pointers, two by Coleman. His second 3 started a four-point play.
The Bluejays had a 36-26 edge in rebounding and shot 49 percent. The Bulldogs made 37 percent (20-54) from the field. "We kept our composure and executed our defensive game plan but we just couldn't get over the hump," Fresno State head coach Steve Cleveland said. "We did not have a great 3-point night and if we could have just made some of those we would have been right there.
Fresno State resumes Western Athletic Conference action next week when the Bulldogs travel to San Jose State on Thu., Feb. 23, 7:00 p.m.