Senior shooting guard Caleb Martin recorded 25 points, seven assists and six rebounds and No. 17 Nevada earned the top seed in next week's Mountain West Conference tournament by posting an 81-53 victory over San Diego State on Saturday night at Reno, Nev.
Senior power forward Jordan Caroline added 16 points and 12 rebounds to extend his Mountain West double-double record to 45. Sophomore forward Cody Martin scored 14 points and senior power forward Trey Porter added 13 for the Wolf Pack (28-3, 15-3 Mountain West).
Nevada tied with Utah State for first place in the conference. The two teams split their regular-season matchups, but the Wolf Pack win the tiebreaker because they swept third-place Fresno State while the Aggies split with the Bulldogs.
Senior guard Jeremy Hemsley scored 16 points for San Diego State (19-12, 11-7). Sophomore forward Matt Mitchell added 14 points and nine rebounds, and senior guard Devin Watson also tallied 14 points for the Aztecs.
San Diego State, which had a three-game winning streak against Nevada snapped, shot just 34.6 percent from the field, but was 10 of 21 from 3-point range.
Nevada shot 53.1 percent from the field and 9 of 23 from long range. The Wolf Pack possessed a 42-25 rebounding edge while improving to 15-0 at home.
San Diego State trailed by five after a jumper by sophomore power forward Jalen McDaniels with 15:32 left in the contest before Nevada answered with a 13-3 run to open up a 62-47 advantage with nine minutes to play.
A short time later, Caleb Martin scored seven points during a 17-0 surge as the Wolf Pack broke the game open and increased their lead to 79-49. Caroline capped the explosive stretch with a steal and dunk with 3:35 remaining.
Cody Martin scored 14 points and twin brother Caleb added 12 as Nevada held a 42-37 halftime lead.
The Wolf Pack started the game with a 16-5 burst and later led 32-17 after a 3-pointer by Cody Martin with 7:39 remaining.
San Diego State used runs of 10-3 and 10-0 to get back in the game with Hemsley's layup cutting Nevada's lead to three with 58 seconds left. The Aztecs were 9 of 12 from 3-point range in the half with Watson sinking all four of his attempts.
--Field Level Media
San Diego St. | Nevada | |
Jeremy Hemsley 16 | Scoring | Caleb Martin 25 |
Jeremy Hemsley 3 | Assists | Caleb Martin 7 |
Matt Mitchell 9 | Rebounds | Jordan Caroline 12 |
Devin Watson 2 | Free Throws Made | Caleb Martin 8 |
Jeremy Hemsley 2 | Steals | Caleb Martin 2 |
N/A | Blocks | Trey Porter 2 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
San Diego St. | 53 | 34.6 | 10-21 | 7-17 | 10 | 25 | 0 | 4 | 12 |
Nevada | 81 | 53.1 | 9-23 | 20-35 | 14 | 38 | 2 | 4 | 14 |