Boise State, Nevada, Utah State and New Mexico State all won their O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters games in contests played on Friday and Saturday. The WAC was the only conference to go undefeated of those with more than two teams participating.
Conference Records in O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters Games
| Conference |
W |
L |
Pct. |
| WAC |
4 |
0 |
1.000 |
| Big South |
1 |
0 |
1.000 |
| Southern |
1 |
0 |
1.000 |
| Colonial Athletic |
3 |
2 |
.600 |
| MAC |
2 |
2 |
.500 |
| Horizon |
1 |
1 |
.500 |
| Missouri Valley |
2 |
4 |
.333 |
| America East |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
| Big West |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
| Mid-Continent |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
| Ohio Valley |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
| Patriot |
0 |
1 |
.000 |
In all games over the weekend, the WAC was 7-2 as Fresno State beat Sam Houston State, 78-60, Hawai'i won at Long Beach State, 93-78, and Louisiana Tech won at Southeast Missouri, 72-56. The losses came from San Jose State at Northern Arizona and Idaho against UC Riverside. The 7-2 record tied the Horizon league for the best winning percentage of any conference with at least two teams participating.
Conference Records in all games from BracketBusters Weekend
| Conference |
W |
L |
Pct. |
| WAC |
7 |
2 |
.778 |
| Horizon |
7 |
2 |
.778 |
| MAAC |
6 |
4 |
.600 |
| MAC |
6 |
6 |
.500 |
| Missouri Valley |
5 |
5 |
.500 |
| Colonial Athletic |
5 |
7 |
.417 |
| Southern |
3 |
1 |
.750 |
| Big West |
3 |
5 |
.375 |
| Ohio Valley |
3 |
8 |
.273 |
| Big South |
2 |
1 |
.667 |
| Big Sky |
2 |
2 |
.500 |
| West Coast |
1 |
0 |
1.000 |
| Patriot |
1 |
2 |
.333 |
| America East |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
| Mid-Continent |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
| Southland |
0 |
2 |
.000 |
New Mexico State 77, Ohio 72
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) -Guard Fred Peete scored 17 points and Hatila Passos had two late dunks as New Mexico State rallied from an 18-point halftime deficit to beat Ohio 77-72 in an ESPN-Bracketbusters game Saturday night.
New Mexico State (20-6) extended its homecourt winning streak to 18 straight with the stirring comeback against the Bobcats (16-10).
Ohio led 47-29 at halftime behind the scoring of Bubba Walther, who had 17 of his 25 points in the opening half.
The Bobcats still led by 17 early in the second half, when the Aggies started going inside. The move worked as Peete and the Aggies' frontline of the 6-foot-11 Passos and 7-footer Martin Iti wore down Ohio's defense.
A pair of free throws by Peete with 7:48 left gave the Aggies a 59-58 lead with 7:48 left.
Ohio regrouped and regained the lead. A 3-pointer by Walther with 3:28 left gave the Bobcats a 69-63 lead.
NMSU guard Elijah Ingram hit a 3-pointer and Peete a layup. After Walther, an 83 percent free throw shooter, missed the front end of a one-and-one, Passos scored on a dunk for a 70-69 NMSU lead with 1:18 left.
Walther missed on a shot in the lane and Passos came up with a steal and went in for a two-handed dunk.
Utah State 71, Oral Roberts 65
TULSA, Okla. - Jaycee Carroll scored a game-high 25 points and Utah State rallied from a 22-4 deficit to defeat Oral Roberts 71-65 here Saturday night. Utah State improves to 20-7 with the win, while Oral Roberts falls to 19-9 with the loss. The Golden Eagles entered the game with a 12-1 home record, and had won 13 of its last 14 games.
Utah State has now won 20 games in each of the last eight seasons, extending its school record. The previous high for consecutive 20-win seasons for USU was three from 1962-64.
Durrall Peterson added 11 points and seven rebounds for Utah State, while Kris Clark tied his season-high with nine points to go along with five assists and no turnovers. Carroll added a team-high eight rebounds, while Arvydas Vaitiekus came off the bench to score eight points on four-of-four shooting.
Oral Roberts scored the first 14 points of the game and lead 22-4 with 12:27 remaining in the half before Utah State began its comeback as it scored seven straight points to cut the lead in half. ORU increased its lead back to 14 at 27-13 only to see Utah State go on a 13-2 run to cut the lead to three at 29-26, and trailed by just three at the break 31-28.
In the first-half, Utah State shot 48.1 percent from the field and held Oral Roberts to just 36.4 percent. ORU dominated the boards in the first-half 21-14, including seven on the offensive end. Carroll had nine points for USU at the break, while Caleb Green had 16 as he was six-of-10 from the field.
Utah State continued its run in the second-half by scoring seven of the first nine points and took its first lead of the game on a lay-up by Carroll to make the score 35-33. Oral Roberts tied it at 35 on a lay-up by Shawn King, but Utah State answered with a lay-up by Stephen DuCharme with 17:26 remaining. USU never trailed again and led by as many as 10 points at 64-54 with :53 seconds remaining before winning by six points. Utah State sealed the game by making nine-of-12 free throws in the final :53 seconds.
Utah State finished the game by shooting 52.8 percent from the field and held Oral Roberts to 40.0 percent shooting, including 34.8 percent from three-point range (8-23). ORU did out-rebound the Aggies 36-33, while USU had two more assists (14-12) and one less turnover (11-12).
Nevada 79, Northern Iowa 64
RENO, Nev. -- Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson knew his Panthers were in trouble when Nevada (No. 10 ESPN/USA Today, No. 11 AP) scored the first 10 points of the second half.
Trailing at halftime for only the sixth time this season, the Wolf Pack started the second with a surge and pulled away to defeat Northern Iowa 79-64 for their 17th victory in the last 18 games.
Marcelus Kemp led the way with 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists, Nick Fazekas had 17 points and eight rebounds and Kyle Shiloh scored all 16 of his points in the second half for Nevada (24-2, 11-1 Western Athletic Conference).
"They are too good of basketball team, they have too many offensive weapons to let them get that far away on their home floor," Jacobson said.
"And when you don't see them every day like a league team, until you get in that spot against these guys, I don't know if you fully realize how good they are offensively," he said.
Eric Coleman had 16 points and Grant Stout 10 for the Panthers (16-11, 7-9 Missouri Valley Conference), who led at the half 33-32 but now have lost five in a row and eight of their last nine.
"We just executed offensively and came out and defended them a little bit better and just came out with a little more intensity," Fazekas, who took only nine shots, making five, and converted all seven free-throw attempts.
"We didn't play bad in the first half. They just played with us. They were playing a tough ball game the whole night," Fazekas said.
Ramon Sessions was the fourth Nevada player in double figures, scoring 14 points with six assists for the Wolf Pack, who are now are now 59-6 at home since the start of the 2003-04 season.
"I was very pleased with our unselfish play," Nevada coach Mark Fox said. "Tonight we shared the ball and because we did, we got some great shots in rhythm. It certainly helps with Nick getting all the attention inside. Kyle was terrific tonight."
With UNI double-teaming the 6-foot-11 Fazekas, the Wolf Pack made 62.5 percent of their shots from the field the second half and 51 percent on the game. They made 9-of-18 from behind the 3-point arc, including 4-of-8 by Shiloh.
Jacobson said Fazekas' unselfishness "is a big key and a big reason why this team is so good."
"Nick doesn't mind that the other guys score more than he does. You can see it on the tapes and you can see it again tonight," Jacobson said.
Nevada started the second half with Fazekas' baby hook, consecutive 3-point goals by Shiloh and Denis Ikovlev, and a pair of free throws from Sessions to go ahead 42-33 at 17:30.
Coleman stopped the run with a basket inside, but Sessions scored again then JaVale McGee and Sessions had back-to-back tip-ins to make it 48-35 lead with 15:10 left in the game.
Coleman again stopped the run, this time with a pair of free throws, but Shiloh hit consecutive 3-pointers to make it 54-37 at 13:43.
After Sessions laid the ball in off an alley oop from Kemp, Shiloh made another three and Kemp added a pair of free throws for a 66-45 lead at 8:39.
UNI freshman Jordan Eglseder answered with a 3-point goal and Jared Josten made a layup to within 60-56 at 7:45.
But Nevada ran off five in a row to make it 71-50 on Fazekas' layup with 5:11 left and put the game away with its biggest lead on his two free throws at 2:27, 77-54.
Fazekas moved into fourth place on the WAC's career rebounding list with 1,174, surpassing Paul Millsap, who had 1,172 at Louisiana Tech from 1984-88. Fazekas is fifth on the WAC's all-time scoring list with 2,306, five shy of Fennis Dembo (Wyoming, 1984-88).
The Panthers scored eight in a row, including four by Coleman on a left-handed slam dunk over Fazekas and a 14-footer to tie it 17-17 midway through the first half. They went ahead 28-26 when freshman Jordan Eglseder followed a pair of free throws with a basket off a rebound at 5:07.
Ikovlev of Postville, Iowa, hit a 3-point goal to help Nevada regain the lead but Jared Josten made a 19-footer then made two free throws with 1 second on the clock for UNI's 33-32 halftime lead.
Ikovlev finished with nine points on 3-of-3 shooting from long range.
"It was nice to play well," he said. "I played in front of my high school coach and it was nice to play well in front of him."
Friday's Score
Boise State 83, Albany 82
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Anthony Thomas hit a 3-point basket from the top of the key with 32 seconds remaining Friday night to lift Boise State to an 83-82 win over Albany, N.Y., in a nonconference game.
Thomas' game-winning basket came after Albany's Jamar Wilson hit a basket and a free throw to give the Great Danes an 82-80 lead with one minute left.
Albany (18-9) had a chance to pull out a victory, but Brian Lillis' short jump shot in the closing seconds and an offensive rebound attempt were both short of the mark as time expired.
Thomas scored 16 points for the Broncos (15-10) and Reggie Larry had 22 as BSU won its fourth consecutive game.
Wilson paced the Great Danes, who had won eight of their last nine games, with 22 points, Brent Wilson added 16, and Jason Siggers and Lillis had 12 each.
Eric Lane scored 16 for Boise State to get within five points of the 1,000-point plateau. Seth Robinson added 11 for the Broncos who shot 56.9 percent for the game.