Nevada basketball beats New Mexico State

RENO - Nevada basketball coach Mark Fox summed it up perfectly.

"It was the tale of two halves, I'll tell you that," Fox said. "We defended much better in the second half.

"I didn't like the look of the team before the game. They didn't have a lot of energy. We didn't play well in the first half. We turned it around in the second half."

The Wolf Pack came out energized in the second half, turning a two-point deficit into a rout en route to an 85-63 victory over New Mexico State before a partisan crowd of 9,736 Thursday night at Lawlor Events Center.

The win enabled Nevada to keep pace with Louisiana Tech, its opponent on Monday night at 9 p.m. Both teams are 8-3 in conference. Nevada improved to 18-5 overall.

This was a team game in every sense of the word. Nevada put five players in double figures for the first time this season. Nick Fazekas led the way with 24, followed by Demarshay Johnson, who had a career-high 22. Kyle Shiloh ended with 14, while Marcelus Kemp and Mo Charlo each had 11. Ramon Sessions didn't score, but equaled his career-high with 11 assists.

Points are nice to talk about and recognize, and Nevada shot 61.8 from the field, but chalk this one up to the defense and rebounding, especially in the second half. Nevada held NMSU to 33.3 percent from the floor over the final 20 minutes, held high-scoring Elijah Ingram to only 11 points (he had 26 last Saturday) and outrebounded the smaller Aggies 37-21, including a plus-15 in the second half.

"We started to play defense," Charlo said. "We knew we had to play hard at the defensive end. They have great guards. You have to contest every shot."

That defense helped Nevada go on a 17-1 surge, which wiped out New Mexico State's 42-40 edge.

"We missed three point-blank shots, and they came down and scored on all three of them," NMSU coach Reggie Theus said.

Shiloh put Nevada ahead to stay with a 3-pointer from the right corner, Johnson followed with a putback and Kemp scored in the lane to make it 47-42 with 16:39 left. Fazekas scored four quick points, Kemp hit a pull-up jump shot, Johnson hit an off-balance shot and Shiloh capped the surge with a layup to make it 53-42.

New Mexico State had no answer for Johnson, who converted 9-for-10 from the floor and 4-for-6 from the line.

"He's a warrior on the defensive and offensive end," said Shiloh of his 6-9 teammate.

"He had a heck of a game," Theus said. "I don't want to take anything away from him, but he didn't have anybody guarding him. We did a piss-poor job. When you find a chump to score on, you have to bust his ass."

New Mexico State couldn't defend Johnson or Fazekas. The duo was a combined 20-for-36 from the floor. Nevada outscored NMSU 52-31 in the paint.

"When you get that from both post spots, it certainly helps," Fox said. "We didn't shoot the 3 well, but we were effective inside. Hopefully we continue to get that production."

The Aggies fought back to 63-56 with 9:09 left, but Nevada came back with a 16-5 run sparked by several nice offensive plays, including a hard dribble drive down the lane by Chad Bell, a lean-in shot by Fazekas and a reverse layup by Charlo that extended the lead to 72-58 and brought the crowd to its feet. Johnson had a slam and putback in that span.

"We had our chances," Theus said. "We didn't do what we needed to do in the second half. They killed us on the boards in the second half."

And, Ingram, who torched the Pack for 26 points in Las Cruces, scored only four points in the final 20 minutes, getting off only five shots from the floor.

"We did trap him a little bit," Fox said. "He's a great player. We were fortunate to play a little better tonight than we did there."

"I think Elijah played very hard," Theus said. "He got banged a lot. That's what happens on the road. I didn't see him not being able to do things he wanted. When you're 5-foot-8 that's a tough shot."

There were no tough shots for the Aggies in the first half, much to Fox's chagrin.

Whereas Nevada led by four points at halftime five days ago, New Mexico State, thanks to a turnover in the waning seconds, used a slam dunk by Tyrone Nelson to take a 40-38 lead.

Nevada was hampered by foul problems, as Charlo and Fazekas both picked up their second fouls with less than five minutes left in the half, and Fox wisely held the duo out the rest of the way.

Nevada was unable to defend, as the Aggies shot 55.6 from the floor, including 6-for-8 from beyond the 3-point arc. Ted Knauber had 10 first-half points, nine coming on three 3-pointers, and Mike Mitchell knocked down two 3-pointers.

"We were in serious foul trouble in the first half," Fox said. "I seldom play a player with two fouls in the second half. Nick sat out the last five minutes. It allowed us to be more aggressive in the second."

"I'm not sure (what went wrong)," Shiloh said. "We let them get too deep and then we had to help. They kicked the ball outside."

The Pack did get a nice first half from Johnson, who tied his career high with 12 points set last week against the Aggies, and Fazekas finished with 10 points. Johnson got off to a quick start, scoring Nevada's first eight points.