Nevada Basketball: Wolf Pack pulls off win over Aggies

The Nevada Wolf Pack earned a victory over the Utah State Aggies on Wednesday night by a score of 73-68 in Reno. With the win, the Wolf Pack improve their record to 17-10 and 9-6 in the Mountain West conference while the Aggies record drops to 13-13 and 5-10 in the Mountain West conference.

The Wolf Pack struggled in the first half as they were down early to the Aggies by a score of 16-5. But Nevada clawed their way back out of the double digit hole and cut the Aggie lead to 35-28 at the end of the half. In the second half, the Wolf Pack went on a 13-4 scoring run to take the lead at 41-39. The Aggies tied the game at 46-46 when Utah State guard Shane Rector's (10 points, four assist) layup tied the score. But Cameron Oliver's dunk on the next Wolf Pack possession, gave Nevada the lead again for good.

The Aggies made one final push to retake the lead when Chris Smith (12 points) hit a three pointer at the 1:47 mark of the game to cut the Wolf Pack lead to 67-66. But that was as close as Utah State got in trying to retake the lead as the Wolf Pack held on for the win.  Despite the win, the Wolf Pack did lose Marqueze Coleman (10 points) to an injury as he suffered a severe left ankle sprain and his availability for the next game in uncertain.

For Nevada, Tyron Criswell led the team in scoring with 23 points and also, he grabbed 16 rebounds while Cameron Oliver scored 15 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Jalen Moore was the Aggies leading scorer as he chipped in with 16 points in the losing effort. The Wolf Pack will continue their home stand on Sunday at 2pm as they host the Colorado State Rams.