Utah State 94, Houston Baptist 77
LOGAN, Utah (AP)-- Tai Wesley had 17 points and Gary Wilkinson scored 16 and pulled down 12 rebounds to lead Utah State past Houston Baptist 94-77 Tuesday night.
Jared Quayle recorded 15 points and Pooh Williams 13 for the Aggies (11-1). The game was part of the four-team Duel in the Desert holiday tournament, hosted by Utah State.
Baron Sauls led the Huskies (0-14) with 18 points. Gordon Watt scored 13 and Andrew Puzyk added 15, all in the first half.
The Aggies took their first lead of the second half with 13:31 to play when Matt Formisano made a layup, bringing the score to 51-50. The teams then traded leads before Utah State pulled away behind five straight points by Wesley near the 5:00 mark.
Utah State made three consecutive steals in the final minutes to seal the victory.
Houston Baptist shot 9-of-12 from 3-point range in the first half, while USU shot 41 percent from the field and had seven turnovers, falling behind 42-34 at halftime.
Hawai?i 78, Pepperdine 70
HONOLULU (AP)-- Lasha Parghalava came off the bench to score 25 points to lead Hawaii to a 78-70 win over Pepperdine and fifth place in the Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic on Tuesday.
Parghalava hit seven of his 10 shots from the field and six of seven from the free throw line. He was five of seven on 3-pointers.
Hawaii led by as many as 14 after Parghalava converted a layup after a backdoor cut and assist from Roderick Flemings to make it 68-54 with 3:09 left.
Pepperdine got within seven points with 21 seconds to go after Lorne Jackson made a pair of free throws to make it 74-67.
The Rainbow Warriors (8-4) shot 52 percent from the field and got 16 points from Bill Amis and 11 points and seven rebounds from Petras Balocka.
Jackson led the Waves (2-13) with 18 points. Keion Bell and Taylor Darby had 12 points apiece and Mike Hornbuckle added 11.
New Mexico 68, New Mexico State 66
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP)-- Daniel Faris hit a jumper with 40 seconds left Tuesday night to help New Mexico past New Mexico State 68-66.
Faris' jumper gave the Lobos a 67-66 lead. New Mexico State's Hernst Larouche missed a jumper with 18 seconds left that would have put the Aggies up by one.
New Mexico guard Dairese Gary followed with a free throw at 14.1 seconds to put the Lobos up 68-66. The Aggies had a chance to tie or win the game but missed two shots in the final seconds.
New Mexico (9-5) earned a season sweep of NMSU (6-7) and now leads the series 108-94. New Mexico State lost for the first time at home this season.
New Mexico was led by Faris' 17 points and 11 rebounds. Roman Martinez added 16 points and Tony Danridge finished with 12 points.
The Lobos made five of their eight 3-pointers in the second half and also outrebounded the Aggies 37-32. New Mexico also used a 24-15 advantage in points off turnovers toward the win.
New Mexico State got a season-high 22 points from guard Jonathan Gibson and 15 points from forward Wendell McKines. The Aggies stayed in the game by making 24 of 31 from the free throw line. New Mexico State shot just 39.6 percent from the field.
The first half was tight with six lead changes, but it was New Mexico that took a 30-28 halftime lead by scoring the final six points of the half. Neither team shot the ball well from the field -- NMSU shot 29.6, while UNM was a notch higher at 34.4.
The two teams also combined for 21 turnovers in the opening 20 minutes.
The Lobos got 10 points from Faris to lead the way early, while NMSU got nine points each from McKines and Gibson.