Coach Mark Fox made a special appeal to his underclassmen for what he knew would be an emotional night for Nick Fazekas and the 10th-ranked Wolf Pack's other seniors in their last home game.

Junior Marcelus Kemp came through by scoring 21 of his 32 points in the second half, including four consecutive free throws after a technical foul at a key point midway through the second half, to lead Nevada to a 69-65 victory over New Mexico State tonight.

Fazekas added 22 points and nine rebounds, and junior Ramon Sessions grabbed 10 rebounds for the Wolf Pack, who claimed their fourth straight regular-season title in the Western Athletic Conference with four consecutive seasons of 25 or more victories.

''Extremely emotional night,'' Fox said after his team cut down the nets in front of many of the 11,472 screaming fans in white T-shirts who attended the game.

''I met with our underclassmen yesterday, Marcelus specifically, and I said, 'You guys are going to have to really play well because we're going to be so emotional we may not look very pretty,''' Fox said.

Kemp was 9-for-17 from the field and 12-for-13 on free throws, including four straight after a foul and technical foul that gave Nevada a 50-47 lead midway through the second half that it didn't relinquish.

Nevada (27-3, 14-2) is 60-6 at home since the start of the 2003-04 season.

''This has been a special group, seniors yes, but the entire team because they value the principles we built this program on,'' said Fox, in his third year as Nevada's head coach.

''They have not won every game, but they've won a heck of a lot and they've done enough to just keep making you think they can do more,'' he said.

Each fan at Saturday night's sell out received a free white Wolf Pack T-shirt, part of a promotion billed as a ''white out'' after a series of winter storms plastered the Sierra Nevada.

''The crowd was great,'' said Kyle Shiloh, a senior guard who finished with seven points and five rebounds. ''I don't think I've ever played in an environment like that.''

Tyrone Nelson scored 15 points, Elijah Ingram 13 and Ted Knauber 12 for New Mexico State (22-8, 11-5 WAC), which trailed 21-15 early but closed the first half with an 11-4 run to take a 31-28 lead at the break.

Fazekas said defense and rebounding down the stretch were key.

''It was back and forth, back and forth and then finally for us to get two or three stops, it can separate any team,'' he said.