Jordan Caroline finished with a game-high 26 points and 11 rebounds, his ninth double-double of the season, and Kendall Stephens added 21 points, including hitting 7 of 13 3-pointers, for the Wolf Pack (21-5, 10-2 Mountain West), who moved into a tie for first place with Boise State, which was playing at Utah State later Saturday night.
Drew came within one assist of garnering Nevada's first triple-double since Johnny High accomplished it in 1979 against Southern Oregon. Walk-on Charlie Tooley missed a 3-pointer just before the final buzzer off Drew's final pass of the game.
Mountain West scoring leader Caleb Martin, who missed Nevada's 86-78 loss to UNLV on Wednesday night with a Lisfranc foot injury, made a surprising return and scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds in 23 minutes of action.
Matt Mitchell scored 12 points, Jalen McDaniels finished with 11 points and eight rebounds and Devin Watson added 10 points for San Diego State (13-10, 5-7), which lost for the fifth time in seven games. Malik Pope just missed a double-double with nine points and a game-high 13 rebounds for the Aztecs, who shot just 33.9 percent, including 28.1 in the second half.
The game see-sawed back-and-forth in the first half, with Nevada ending an 8-0 run by the Aztecs to tie it, 35-35, going into halftime on Caleb Martin's 3-pointer, his first made field goal in six attempts.
The Wolf Pack opened the second half on a 7-0 run capped by another Caleb Martin 3-pointer to take a 42-35 lead and pulled away to a 57-45 advantage on a Stephens 3-pointer to cap another 7-0 run. Nevada then methodically pulled away and led by as many as 25 points down the stretch.
Nevada, which had a 16-game home winning streak snapped by UNLV on Wednesday, improved to 30-2 in its last 32 home games and won for just the second time in the last 10 meetings with San Diego State.
--Field Level Media
San Diego St. | Nevada | |
Matt Mitchell 12 | Scoring | Jordan Caroline 26 |
Jeremy Hemsley 4 | Assists | Lindsey Drew 9 |
Malik Pope 13 | Rebounds | Jordan Caroline 11 |
Jeremy Hemsley 2 | Free Throws Made | Jordan Caroline 10 |
Devin Watson 2 | Steals | Cody Martin 2 |
N/A | Blocks | Cody Martin 2 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
San Diego St. | 58 | 33.9 | 10-30 | 6-10 | 12 | 34 | 0 | 5 | 11 |
Nevada | 83 | 46.7 | 11-34 | 16-20 | 18 | 38 | 2 | 3 | 9 |