Utah State 67, Idaho State 57
POCATELLO, Idaho (AP)-- Utah State had three players in double figures and six scoring eight points or more as the Aggies beat Idaho State 67-57 on Saturday.
Tyler Newbold led Utah State with 13 points, Stavon Williams had 11 and Tai Wesley had 10. Aggie center Gary Wilkinson pulled down 11 rebounds and scored nine points.
Idaho State's top scorer was Lucas Steijn, who came of the bench to score 15 points. No other Idaho State player scored in double figures, though guard Matt Stucki had seven points, six rebounds and six assists. Forward Demetrius Monroe led Idaho State with eight rebounds.
Utah State (8-1) built on a seven-point first half lead and had leads of up to 15 points in the second half.
Idaho State (2-8) pulled to within seven points with 3:20 left in the game at 60-53, but was held to four points the rest of the contest.
San Jose State 89, Northern Colorado 78
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP)-- Tim Pierce scored a career-high 26 points to help San Jose State beat Northern Colorado 89-78 on Saturday.
Washington transfer Adrian Oliver scored 27 points in his Spartans' debut, just becoming eligible before San Jose State (4-3) played its first game in 12 days.
Devon Beitzel scored a career-high 27 points to lead the Bears (3-7), who fell to 1-5 on the road. Chris Kaba added 12 points and Jabril Banks and John Pena each had 11 for Northern Colorado, which is in the midst of playing five games in seven days in three different western states (Colorado, California, Nevada).
Justin Graham set a career-high with 13 assists, eight in the first half. The 10th assist was a deliberate pass off the backboard on a fastbreak that turned into a Pierce slam.
The Spartans scored their season-high in points and allowed their season-high for points.
Pierce sank his first four shots, all 3-pointers and finished with a career-high six long-range shots.
Beitzel hit his first seven shots, two from long range, and the Bears made 14 of their first 18 attempts. Beitzel finished 12-of-14 from the floor.
The Spartans shot 60 percent in the first half to take a 44-37 halftime advantage.
Idaho 67, Texas Southern 46
MOSCOW, Idaho (AP)-- Kashif Watson scored 18 points as Idaho overcame an early deficit and cruised to a 67-46 victory over winless Texas Southern on Saturday.
Watson scored eight points in the first five minutes of the second half as Idaho (6-5) went on a 15-7 run that gave the Vandals a 42-28 lead with 14:27 left.
Mac Hopson added 13 points for Idaho, and Marvin Jefferson had 12.
Jacques Jones was the only Tiger in double figures, scoring 11 points.
Idaho's defense forced Texas Southern (0-11) into turning the ball over 24 times, and the Vandals outscored the Tigers 23-11 off turnovers.
The Tigers took a 10-4 lead in the first five minutes when Jones hit a 3-pointer.
Idaho responded with a 21-7 run, tying the score at 14-14 and then pushing ahead to 25-17.
Idaho hit 55 percent of its field goals while Texas Southern shot 39 percent from the floor.
Fresno State 72, South Carolina Upstate 47
FRESNO, Calif. (AP)-- Paul George scored a game-high 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as Fresno State used a second-half surge to defeat winless South Carolina Upstate on Saturday night.
Sylvester Seay, Nedeljko Golubovic and Dwight O'Neil added 13 points apiece for the Bulldogs, who began the second half with a 22-5 scoring run.
Bobby Davis led South Carolina Upstate (0-9) with 13 points and 11 rebounds. The Spartans are playing their second season at the Division I level.
Brian Seals added seven points and a game-high 12 rebounds for Fresno State (6-5), which earned its second straight nonconference victory.
The Bulldogs led practically from start to finish by shooting 43.9 percent from the floor compared to 29.2 percent South Carolina Upstate.
Seay hit two 3-pointers and Golubovic banked in a shot over the Spartans' 7-foot-3 center, Nick Schneiders, to fuel Fresno State's early second-half charge.
Seals' dunk of a missed layup by George put the Bulldogs ahead 53-32 with 14:26 remaining. South Carolina Upstate got no closer than 16 points the rest of the way.
Fresno State led 31-27 at halftime after nearly blowing every bit of a 14-point advantage.
Trailing 22-8 with 8 minutes left, the Spartans went on a 17-4 run to storm back into the game. Davis' layup with 2:20 left trimmed the deficit to 26-25.
O'Neil led all scorers with 11 first-half points, and George added nine for the Bulldogs. Davis led South Carolina Upstate with eight points and five rebounds.
After starting 2 of 19 from the floor, the Spartans improved their field-goal shooting to finish the first half at 34.4 percent.
Though played at Fresno's Save Mart Center, the game was considered part of the Las Vegas Classic.
Boise State 66, Cal State Bakersfield 62
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP)-- Paul Noonan scored 17 points in the second half as Boise State overcame a two-point halftime deficit to claim a 66-62 win over Cal State Bakersfield Saturday night.
Noonan, who had three points in two minutes of action during the first period, nailed his third triple of the game at the 10:17 mark of the second half to give the Broncos (7-3) their first lead of the second half, 48-46.
Bakersfield (3-9) took its last lead on a dunk by Donavan Bragg at the 3:50 mark. The Broncos, however, were able to stretch their advantage back to as many as five down the stretch.
Ike Okoye had 16 points for Boise, while Mark Snachez chipped in 10.
Terrence Johns led the Roadrunners with 14 points, while Alex Johnson had 13 and Trent Blakely had 11 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
Bakersfield jumped out to a 13-7 lead to start the game and never trailed by more than two in the first half before taking a 29-27 advantage into the half.
UTEP 84, New Mexico State 69
El PASO, Texas-(AP)The New Mexico State men’s basketball team’s three-game winning streak was snapped at UTEP, Saturday, Dec. 20, at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas. The Aggies fell to the Miners, 84-69, to split the I-10 rivalry this season.
Freshman center Hamidu Rahman scored a career-high 19 points to lead the Aggies. Sophomore guard Jahmar Young supplied 18 points and freshman forward Troy Gillenwater contributed 14.
The Aggies trailed at halftime, 39-33, despite out-rebounding the Miners, 28-27. Sophomore forward Wendell McKines had a game-high eight rebounds. Offensively, NMSU struggled only shooting 26.5 percent from the field and 25.0 percent from the 3-point line.
Rahman had 11 points at the break with Gillenwater adding 10 points.
UTEP began the second half with a 12-4 run to take a 51-37 lead without sophomore guard Randy Culpepper. He was ejected following his second technical foul of the game during a halftime incident in the tunnel.
California 75, Nevada 66
BERKELEY, Calif. -- (AP) Jerome Randle had 23 points and tied a season high with eight assists, Patrick Christopher scored 16 points and California overcame a sloppy offensive performance in the first half to beat Nevada 75-66 on Saturday afternoon.
Jamal Boykin and Theo Robertson added 10 points apiece for the Bears (8-2), who won despite missing 13 of their first 19 shots and failing to score off an offensive rebound in the first half.
Nevada's Armon Johnson scored 27 of his career-high 33 points in the second half, including 13 in the final 2:26, but the Wolfpack (6-5) couldn't get much else going late in their first road game since Dec. 2. Nevada had won three straight going in but haven't won at Berkeley since the 1983-84 season.
Randle, Cal's leading scorer, had a 3-pointer midway through the second half to cap a 13-4 run and give the Bears a 44-38 lead. But Nevada stayed close behind Johnson and Luke Babbitt, who had 10 of his 14 points in the second half including a short hook shot that pulled the Wolfpack within 54-51 with 4:12 remaining.
Christopher, Randle and Robertson made consecutive 3-pointers for Cal and Christopher scored on a dunk off a long pass from Randle to make it 65-51.
Johnson, who shattered his previous career-high of 23 points set against Colorado State earlier this season, tried to get Nevada back in it but Randle scored nine points down the stretch, including four free throws with 33 seconds left -- two on a technical against Wolfpack coach Mark Fox -- to seal the win for the Bears.
California shot just 36 percent in the first half when starters Robertson and center Jordan Wilkes went scoreless. The Bears got open looks and easy drives through the lane but couldn't finish. They were also limited to two offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes, which magnified their scoring problems.
The Wolfpack weren't any better, going 7-for-22 in the first 14 minutes of the first half.
Christopher scored on a reverse under the basket then added a pair of free throws with 53 seconds left to give the Bears a 29-25 halftime lead.
Cal missed five of its first six shots in the second half while Johnson scored seven straight points for
Nevada to give the Wolfpack a 32-29 lead before the Bears got their offense going.