Last Night in the WAC

The games last night finished as expected so let's begin:

Boise State men can still earn second seed
Nick Jezierny
Idaho Statesman
3/06/09

Boise State basketball coach Greg Graham is getting his wish of having his team play well entering next week's WAC Tournament.

The Broncos won their second game in a row, bouncing last-place Fresno State 79-65 Thursday night in front of 3,923 fans at Taco Bell Arena.

The win avenged an earlier loss to the Bulldogs and gives BSU (19-10, 9-6 WAC) a chance at second place in the conference. The Broncos have to beat Nevada on Saturday night at Taco Bell Arena and get some help to finish second.

Saturday's game also gives the Broncos a chance to win 20 games for the second year in a row. The worst they can finish is fourth...

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From the Fresno perspective:

Men's basketball flattened by Boise State
Fresno State unable to stop Broncos' second-half surge.
Daniel Lyght
The Fresno Bee
March 5, 2009

Dwight O'Neil scored a game-high 19 points and Brandon Webster added eight points in 11 minutes for Fresno State on Thursday night.

That was pretty much it for the positives.

The rest of the game left viewers scratching their heads as the Bulldogs lost 79-65 at Boise State.

Bulldogs forward Sylvester Seay, coming off Western Athletic Conference player of the week honors, scored four points on 1-of-9 shooting.

Guard Paul George scored 15 first-half points, then didn't get a shot off in the second half...

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Nevada put away San Jose State early in the second half:

Nevada thrashes San Jose State
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
March 6, 2009

After watching his team play a couple of sluggish minutes to start the second half, Nevada coach Mark Fox signaled for a timeout and delivered a message to his team.

He asked his players whether they wanted to let down the team's lone senior in his last regular-season home game. If the answer was yes, the team was going to show up for a midnight practice.

"I think they got the message," Fox said.

Yes, they did. Shortly after that timeout, Nevada went on a 19-5 run to turn a 41-39 lead into a 16-point bulge.

The final tally -- an 89-66 win over San Jose State in front of 7,147 fans at Lawlor Events Center on Thursday night -- was the Wolf Pack's most-lopsided win in Western Athletic Conference play this season...

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Here's Murray wiht a pair of other articles on the game:

Pack's 'sixth starter' delivers in win
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
March 6, 2009

Most basketball teams have five starters. When Nevada coach Mark Fox looks at his team, he sees six.

And that sixth starter -- junior Brandon Fields -- had his best game of the season Thursday night in an 89-66 victory over San Jose State at Lawlor Events Center.

Coming off the bench, Fields scored a team-high 20 points (one off his season high) on 7-of-9 shooting from the field. He was 5-of-6 from the free-throw line...

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and

Post-game extra from Nevada's win over SJSU
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
3/6/2009

So, Nevada dusted off San Jose State with relative ease Thursday night, giving Lyndale Burleson a win on his senior night. In other WAC games, Boise State drilled Fresno State and Idaho beat Louisiana Tech. What does this mean for the Wolf Pack's WAC Tournament seeding?

Nevada still controls its own fate. A win over Boise State, and Nevada gets the second seed. If Nevada losses, things get more complicated. Here are some scenarios in which the Wolf Pack can lose Saturday and still get the second seed...

Go here for the remainder.

Plus, Idaho too the measure of visiting Louisiana Tech:

Vandals cool off Louisiana Tech’s hot streak with 66-58 win
Vandal Nation
Travis Mason-Bushman

The Idaho Vandals made a statement tonight in the Cowan Spectrum, freezing out the red-hot Louisiana Tech Bulldogs and securing a 66-58 Western Athletic Conference victory. With the win, Idaho (15-14, 8-7 WAC) is now fourth in the WAC standings, with just one game remaining before next week’s conference tournament.

Once again, the Vandals featured a well-balanced offensive attack, putting three players in double figures and going to the line 35 times. They cleaned up the glass, too, outrebounding the Bulldogs (12-19, 6-10 WAC) by a 37-27 margin. For the second straight game, senior guard Trevor Morris led the team in scoring with 14 points on 3-7 shooting, 3-6 from downtown and 5-6 from the free-throw line.

“I tell you what, I thought this was as big a win as we’ve had at home all year tonight,” Idaho coach Don Verlin said. “Here’s what’s hard. We’re playing for a lot right now. If we can wear our white uniforms at the WAC tournament, that’s a big accomplishment for this program. Our guys knew, and we knew, that this was the only way that we could get a three, four or five seed, and we accomplished that tonight. I thought we battled like crazy all night long and I’m proud of our guys for doing that...”

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