Nevada 85, Utah St. 80

2/11/2008 11:31 PM

By SCOTT SONNER
Associated Press Writer

RENO, Nev. (AP) -Marcelus Kemp scored 22 of his 35 points in the second half to help Nevada hold off a late Utah State rally and defeat the league-leading 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 Utah State.

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.

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 five of its last six.

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).

Freshman Armon Johnson finished with 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. JaVale McGee added 12 points and six blocked shots.

Caroll made 8-of-11 field goals the second half and scored 11 consecutive points for the Aggies during to single-handedly put them back in the game. Freshman Tai Wesley had 13 points and 10 rebounds and Gary Wilkinson 12 points and eight rebounds for the Aggies.

The game originally was scheduled Jan. 5 but was postponed due to a snow storm.