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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 12:00 p.m., Friday, March 16, 2007

Kemp, not Fazekas, lifts Nevada to NCAA win in OT

By Brett Martel
Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS — Marcelus Kemp saved Nevada from another early exit in the NCAA tournament.

With Wolf Pack star Nick Fazekas off his game, and eventually fouling out, Kemp capped a 27-point performance with nine points in overtime to lift Nevada to a 77-71 victory over Creighton in the South Regional today.

Nevada (29-4), bounced by Montana in last year's first round, got a big game from Kemp to move into a second-round matchup against second-seeded Memphis (31-3) on Sunday.

Both Nevada and Creighton played Hawaii this season. Nevada swept UH, once in overtime and the other on a controversial call that overturned a UH basket, and Creighton lost to UH in the Rainbow Classic championship game.

Fazekas, the Western Athletic Conference's player of the year, had his second-worst shooting performance of the season and fouled out with 3:06 left in overtime. The senior still finished with 17 points, but was 5-of-13 from the field and not his usual dominant self.

Ramon Sessions scored 16 for the seventh-seeded Wolf Pack.

Nate Funk led Creighton with 23 points, but he began to lose his range late in the game. Nick Porter and Anthony Tolliver each added 15 for the Blue Jays (22-11).

Creighton also struggled from long range, going 3-of-19 on 3-pointers. Dane Watts, who came in averaging 10.1 points per game, was 0-for-8 from long range.