Louisiana Tech 72, Idaho 64
RUSTON, La. - Despite having only eight healthy players in uniform and fighting foul trouble for much of the second half, a spirited effort and clutch free-throw shooting by the home team propelled Louisiana Tech to a 72-64 victory - its first in conference play under Kerry Rupp - over visiting Idaho on Saturday night at the Thomas Assembly Center.
"I was very pleased with our energy and enthusiasm tonight," Rupp said. "We thought we had to come out and play with a lot of heart. We knew this was a game where we couldn't leave anything out there at the end of the night. It was a great team effort tonight; this is the kind of team we have to be."
The Bulldogs (4-18, 1-9 WAC), without the services of junior forward Adrian Rogers, only managed 19 field goals in the contest but were solid at the charity stripe, knocking down 32 of 41 attempts in the contest, season-highs for the Bulldogs in both categories. Tech also kept up its scrappy defensive play, forcing Idaho (5-17, 2-9 WAC) into 27 turnovers while only committing 11.
Tech jumped out to an early 4-0 advantage only to see Idaho score the next seven points to take a three-point lead. But it would be the only time all night the Vandals would hold the advantage despite the Bulldogs going more than seven minutes between field goals at one point in the first half.
Neither team exactly put on a shooting clinic in the opening stanza as Tech shot 30.8 percent (8 of 26) and Idaho was not much better at 35 percent (7 of 20). But free throws would prove to be the difference early as Tech knocked down 15 of 18 attempts in the first half while Idaho only managed 7 of 17. As such, the Bulldogs took an eight-point lead to the break at 32-24.
A Drew Washington jumper got the Bulldog lead to 10 for the first time as the second half got underway. But Idaho would go on a 7-0 run, cutting the margin to 34-31 at the 14:27 mark. After the teams traded baskets, Tech would answer with a 7-0 run of its own to push its lead back to 43-33 with just under 10 minutes remaining.
The game would never seriously be in doubt the rest of the way as the Bulldogs would shoot 55 percent from the field in the second half, knock down 17 of 21 free throw attempts and fend off a flurry of Vandal long-range jumpers to pull out the eight-point win.
Jonathan "JC" Clark led four Bulldogs in double figures with 16 points, his second-best output of the season. Dwayne Lathan added 14 off the bench and pulled down a career-high and team-best eight rebounds. Orren Tims had his third straight double-digit effort with 13 points, and Kyle Gibson added 10.
Idaho was led by Michael Crowell with 13 points while Terrence Simmons added 12 on 5-of-5 shooting. Mike Hall dropped in 11, and Jordan Brooks had 9 points and 13 rebounds before fouling out with 7:42 to play.
New Mexico State 99, Boise State 80
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) -Jonathan Gibson scored a career high 24 points as New Mexico State beat Boise State 99-80 Saturday night.
Freshman Jahmar Young had 18 points for the Aggies (14-12, 8-3 WAC) while Justin Hawkins added 15 and freshman Herb Pope finished with 10 points and seven rebounds.
Tyler Tiedeman scored 23 points to pace Boise State (17-6, 8-3) while Anthony Thomas added 18 and Reggie Larry 14.
It was only the third loss in 12 road games this season for the Broncos, who are chasing the school record of 10 road victories.
Gibson, a sophomore guard, hit four 3-point shots and went 8-for-14 from the field to surpass his previous high of 22 points.
New Mexico State's bench contributed 23 points in the first half en route to a 54-37 halftime lead.
It marked the fifth time this season that the Aggies have scored at least 50 points in the opening half.
Utah State 78, San Jose State 73
LOGAN, Utah - Senior All-American guard Jaycee Carroll had a game-high 26 points and 11 rebounds to lead Utah State to a 78-73 home win against San Jose State here inside a sold-out Dee Glen Smith Spectrum Saturday night.
Utah State has now won 13 of its last 14 games and improved to 18-6 on the season, while San Jose State falls to 10-13 overall with the loss. USU also remains atop the Western Athletic Conference with its 8-1 league record, while the Spartans drop to 2-8 in conference games.
Carroll, who finished the game 8-of-16 from the field and 8-of-9 from the free throw line, registered his second double-double of the season and seventh of his career for Utah State. Junior forward Gary Wilkinson added 15 points and seven rebounds for USU, while freshman forward Tai Wesley had 13 points.
C.J. Webster scored 21 points to lead a quarter of double-figure scorers for San Jose State. Tim Pierce added 15 points for the Spartans, while DaShawn Wright scored 12 and Chris Oakes finished the game with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Trailing 40-38 with 16:09 remaining, Utah State broke open a close game with a 15-2 run as Carroll scored seven points during the Aggie spurt. USU pushed its advantage to a game-high 15 on a free throw by senior forward Stephen DuCharme with 7:44 to play before SJSU slowly chipped away at the deficit and closed to within three at 76-73 with four ticks left in the game on a three-pointer by Pierce. The Aggies made 8-of-10 free throws in the final minute, including two by senior guard Kris Clark with two seconds to play to preserve the win.
Utah State opened the contest with an early 13-7 advantage before San Jose State went on an 11-4 run to take its first lead of the game midway through the first-half. The Aggies then scored six straight points, followed by nine straight points from the Spartans to give the visitors its largest lead of the game at 27-23 with 4:45 to play before the break. USU responded again and scored seven of the final 10 points of the opening period to go into the locker room tied at 32.
In the first-half, Utah State shot just 38.7 percent from the field (12-31), while San Jose State shot 48.1 percent (13-27). Carroll led the Aggies with 10 points at the break, while Pierce had eight for the Spartans.
Utah State finished the game by shooting just 44.2 percent from the field (23-52) and just 25.0 percent from three-point range (4-16), but held San Jose State to 46.0 percent shooting (29-63), including 29.4 percent from behind the arc (5-17). The Aggies won the game at the free throw line as it converted 28-of-32 (.875) foul shots as compared to 10-of-15 (.667) for the visitors. USU also committed a season-low tying seven turnovers, while the Spartans out-rebounded the home team 37-29.
Nevada 88, Hawai`i 68
Box Score
RENO, Nev. (AP) - Senior Marcelus Kemp scored 25 points and sophomore JaVale McGee had 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead Nevada over Hawaii 88-68 in a Western Athletic Conference game on Saturday.
Sophomore Brandon Fields added 17 points for the Wolf Pack (15-8, 6-3 WAC).
Matt Gibson scored 23 points, Bill Amis 16 and Jared Dillinger 11 for the Warriors (10-12, 6-4 WAC).
Kemp had 20 points in the first half, including a 3-pointer with 14:25 to play that gave Nevada a 10-9 lead. The Wolf Pack did not trail again in the game. Kemp also scored the final six points of the half with a pair of 3-pointers and two free throws to give Nevada a 44-33 lead at the half.
The Wolf Pack stretched its lead to 24 midway through the second half as McGee and Kemp fueled a 14-4 run to make it 73-49 with 6:49 left. McGee scored 5 points, including two dunks and Kemp had 5 points, including a 25-foot 3-pointer to cap the run.
Hawaii cut the lead to 12 at 76-64 with 2:37 left on a layup by Gibson, but Nevada closed with a 12-4 run, capped by a pair of 3-pointers by sophomore Ray Kraemer.
The Wolf Pack shot a season-high 61.2 percent from the field, including 11 of 17 on 3-pointers and held the Warriors to 44.1 percent shooting, including 4 of 17 on 3-pointers.