Nick Davidson set game highs with 25 points and 10 rebounds Tuesday night as Nevada scored a massive Quad 1 road win to boost its NCAA Tournament hopes, beating No. 22 Utah State 77-63 in the Mountain West matchup in Logan, Utah.
Kenan Blackshear added 18 points for the Wolf Pack (18-5, 5-4 MW), which canned 52.9 percent of their field goal attempts and outscored the Aggies 38-30 in the paint. Nevada never trailed in the second half and handed Utah State its first loss in 11 home games this season.
Ian Martinez scored 16 points for the Aggies (19-4, 7-3), which has lost consecutive games for the first time this season. They stayed in a tie for first place with Boise State, which fell at Colorado State on Tuesday.
Mason Falslev added 14 points for Utah State, but Great Osobor, the team’s leading scorer at 19 points per game, was held to seven shots and 11 points. The Aggies converted only 39.3 percent of their field goal tries, including just 5 of 21 from the 3-point line.
The Wolf Pack pulled away in the last 10 minutes, making a whopping 23 trips to the foul line in the second half and sinking 17.
Coming off an 81-67 loss Saturday at San Diego State, Utah State put the clamps on Nevada early. The Wolf Pack needed more than nine minutes to reach double figures and trailed 15-8 at the 11:39 mark after Osobor completed a three-point play.
But Nevada controlled the half’s remainder, finding traction on the offensive end and simply beating the Aggies at their game. It went on a 9-2 run to even the score at 17 when Tre Coleman splashed a 3-pointer with 7:42 left.
The Wolf Pack then used a 9-0 run after two Martinez foul shots to take the lead for good. It expanded the margin to 36-27 at halftime when Jarod Lucas converted a short jumper to cap a 28-12 spurt.
Nevada converted 55.2 percent from the field in the half and held Utah State to 31 percent.
So-called quad wins measure a team’s performance against the strength of the opponent and factors in where the games were played. A Quad 1 road win indicated the opponent is among the top 75 teams in the rating percentage index (RPI).
–Field Level Media