RENO, Nev. — After getting showered by taunts from the silver-clad Nevada crowd, and then returning to its hotel called Silver Legacy, the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team could not find a silver lining yesterday.

Not after the Rainbow Warriors dropped to fifth place in the Western Athletic Conference after an 88-68 loss to Nevada in a game that was televised nationally on ESPN2.

Hawai'i head coach Bob Nash said the only thing the 'Bows took from yesterday's performance was "a beating."

"We got beat by 20 points," he said. "We didn't handle the things we needed to do to be successful. We just built a deficit for ourselves we couldn't climb out of. This is not the place to do that."

A raucous "Silver Saturday" crowd of 9,258 at Lawlor Events Center cheered from start to finish as the Wolf Pack defeated the 'Bows handily for the second time this season.

"We played hard," Hawai'i point guard Matt Gibson said. "We did what we could do. They were a better team."

Nevada, which beat the 'Bows by 18 in Honolulu last month, improved to 15-8 overall and 7-3 in the WAC.

Hawai'i, which started the week tied for third in the conference, dropped to 10-12 and 6-4.

The 'Bows got 23 points and seven assists from Gibson, and Bill Amis had his best game in a Hawai'i uniform with 16 points and nine rebounds. Jared Dillinger added 11 points and four rebounds.

But it was not nearly enough against a Nevada team that shot a sizzling 61.2 percent from the field, including 64.7 percent (11 of 17) from 3-point range.

It was the best shooting performance — both overall and from 3-point range — by a Hawai'i opponent this season.

Marcelus Kemp proved his worth as a candidate for WAC Player of the Year with 25 points. He shot 9 of 12 from the field, including 5 of 6 on 3-pointers.

"I got in a rhythm and made some shots — they went in," said Kemp, who scored 29 in the victory at Hawai'i last month. "It was a big game for us. We needed the win ... everything was going our way."

Dillinger drew the unenviable task of defending the 6-foot-5 Kemp.

"I'm just really disappointed, like I let my whole team down," Dillinger said. "We talked the whole week about holding (Kemp) down and I didn't help the team in that area."

In truth, it would have been difficult for anybody to stop Kemp. Many of his points came on difficult shots, including two fadeaway jumpers from long range.

"We had guys in front of him, but we didn't put a hand up," Nash said. "With a guy that can shoot as well as he does, you can't give him too many clean looks, and we probably gave him too many clean looks."

Kemp was problematic for the 'Bows on both ends of the court. His defensive assignment was to shadow Hawai'i forward Bobby Nash.

Nash, who was averaging 15.1 points per game, scored a season-low six points on 2-of-10 shooting.

"They put Kemp on him and he's a little smaller, chasing him off screens so he doesn't get those clean looks," Bob Nash said. "Shooters need to find a way to score and tonight, he didn't find a way to score."

The 'Bows had just nine active players, and only rookies were available to play in the low post. Starting center P.J. Owsley did not make the trip due to a knee injury.

"Of course we missed P.J. tonight, but we knew for a while that he wasn't going to play," Dillinger said. "It's difficult being the smaller team, but you can make up for it with heart and we didn't do that tonight."

Nash said the 'Bows had to mix zone and man-to-man defenses due to their limited personnel, and were not able to utilize a full-court press once they fell behind.

"You just don't have enough bodies to do what you need to do to be successful against this team," he said. "When you can't sub freely and get guys in there and keep them fresh, it hurts."

The 'Bows kept it close early, and even held a 9-7 lead less than six minutes into the game. After that, it was all Nevada.

The Wolf Pack used a 12-4 surge to take a 34-24 lead. Kemp then outscored the 'Bows 8-3 in the final 1:24 of the half to give Nevada a 44-33 advantage at intermission.

Kemp had 20 points by halftime.

Gibson said the turning point of the game was "in that first half when Kemp was unconscious."

"He hit every shot he threw up," Gibson added. "You can say we need to play better defense, but man, we had a pretty good defender on him. We were contesting his shots, he was knocking them down."

Hawai'i got outscored 14-4 in the first nine minutes of the second half, and never got closer than 14 in the game's final 10 minutes.

Nevada, which wore silver uniforms for the first time, also got 20 points and 10 rebounds from 7-foot center JaVale McGee.

All of the Nevada fans wore silver T-shirts, which were passed out for free prior to the game.

The crowd erupted in the closing seconds when reserve Ray Kraemer drained a 3-pointer — Nevada's 11th of the game. It won a free pizza for every fan with a valid ticket.

With that, the Wolf Pack delivered Hawai'i another losing hand. The 'Bows are now 0-11 all-time against Nevada in Reno.

"We just need to learn from this and get better," Dillinger said.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.