RENO, Nev. (AP) - Senior Marcelus Kemp scored 22 of his career-high 35 points in the second half and a young, error-prone Nevada team avoided turnovers down the stretch as the Wolf Pack hung on to beat the Aggies 85-80 Monday night in the Western Athletic Conference.
Kemp made 4-of-8 3-pointers and 13-of-14 free throws for the Wolf Pack (16-8, 8-3 WAC), who had lost their last three games against league-leading Utah State.
``Marcelus is such a warrior. He loves the big games and the big moments,'' Nevada coach Mark Fox said.
``We beat an excellent team that we have a lot of respect for,'' he said. ``We're not picked to win the conference so to be where we're at is a great accomplishment for this team.''
Jaycee Carroll scored 24 of his 29 points in the second half for the Aggies (18-7, 8-2 WAC), who had pulled as close as 78-74 on Gary Wilkinson's slam dunk with 46 seconds left after trailing by as much as 64-46 midway through the second half.
Sophomore Brandon Fields followed that dunk with a pair of free throws and Kemp made 4-of-5 from the line the final 35 seconds to secure the win for Nevada, which has won six of its last seven.
It was only the second loss in the last 15 games for Utah State, which outrebounded Nevada 36-33.
``We had no answer for Kemp,'' Utah State coach Stew Morrill said. ``You've got to guard a guy like that with the whole team and we didn't do that.''
The Wolf Pack entered the game averaging 14 turnovers per outing but finished the night with only four, a sign Fox said his team is maturing offensively.
``I think you've seen that the last few games,'' he said. ``I'm real proud of the way we handled the ball and that was a big key to this game.''
Kemp, who also had seven rebounds and six assists, moved into third on Nevada's career scoring list with 1,757 points. He surpassed Alex Boyd, who scored 1,731 from 1967-70, and now trails only Nick Fazekas, 2,464 (2003-07) and Edgar Jones, 1,877 (1975-79).
``It's a great honor but the main thing is we won the game,'' said Kemp, who initially entered the NBA draft last spring but pulled out to return to Nevada for his senior year. ``We just had to keep fighting. The team stayed together and we got the win. We kept our composure and stayed within our offense.''
Freshman Armon Johnson had 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field and six assists for Nevada, which finished the first half with an 11-2 run to take a 38-30 halftime lead.
``I just let the game come to me,'' said Johnson, a true freshman point guard from Reno's Hug High School. ``The shots were there and I took advantage of them.''
Sophomore JaVale McGee added 12 points and six blocked shots, including one he grabbed and threw half court to Johnson, who pulled up for a 10-foot jumper to cap a 16-4 run that put Nevada ahead 58-41 with 12:46 left in the game.
``They played awfully well,'' Morrill said. ``We knew what we were up against with how well they've been playing, their talent level.''
``Our team hung in there and battled. I've got no complaints about our effort. We were playing catchup the rest of the way,'' he said. ``We made some errors that hurt us, but they deserve credit.''
Caroll made 8-of-11 field goals the second half and scored 11 consecutive points for the Aggies _ including 3-of-3 from behind the arc _ during one stretch to single-handedly put them back in the game.
``It felt like he made 10 3-pointers,'' Fox said. ``He's a great player and a terrific representative of every school in the conference.''
Carroll, who had only 5 points the first half, said he tried to be more aggressive the second half.
``Nevada was all over me. They did a good job defending. They were physical. They were active. We played hard all night. We did come back and fight,'' he said.
``Not a lot of teams are going to win here. Nevada's always tough to beat here,'' Carroll said about a squad they could meet again in the WAC conference tournament.
Freshman Tai Wesley had 13 points and 10 rebounds and Wilkinson 12 points and eight rebounds for the Aggies. Kris Clark tied his career-high 10 assists.
The game originally was scheduled Jan. 5 but was postponed due to a snow storm.