RENO - The Nevada men's basketball team got a little bit closer to earning the second seed in next week's Western Athletic Conference Tournament. Nevada did it by posting a 100-92 WAC home win over New Mexico State in front of 5,878 at Lawlor Events Center Thursday night.

A Nevada home win Saturday in its regular-season finale against Louisiana Tech coupled with a New Mexico State loss at WAC-leading Utah State would sew up the tourney's No. 2 seed for the Wolf Pack. Utah State is 16-1 at home this winter and a perfect 7-0 at home in conference clashes.

Nevada (18-11, 10-5 WAC) tips off the league tourney, which will be played on the Wolf Pack's home floor, next Thursday.

A 59-point second half propelled Nevada to victory over New Mexico State. The Wolf Pack, which shot 64 percent in the second half, put the game away in the final 10 and a half minutes.

Gordo Castillo's three-point play pushed New Mexico State (19-10, 11-4) into a 58-55 lead with 10:56 to go in the contest. Nevada scored the next six points to kick start a 13-2 outburst. WAC player-of-the-year candidate Luke Babbitt buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 7:34 showing on the game clock to conclude the run and give Nevada a 68-61 lead.

New Mexico State's Jonathan Gibson dropped a 3-point bomb with 6:48 remaining that got the Aggies within five, 70-65. The visitors were never that close again. The Wolf Pack put the game away by scoring 10 of the next 11 points. Nevada pushed its lead to a game-high 14 points, 80-66, after the key spurt.

New Mexico State tried to stay in contention. The Aggies trimmed Nevada's lead to six, 91-85, with 56 ticks to go, but they could get no closer.

Brandon Fields had a big night for Nevada. He nailed 11 of 15 shots from the floor and 7 of 10 free throws to finish with a career-high 32 points. He also gave away nine assists and had seven rebounds in the Pack win.

"It's a great win. We know we need two wins very badly at home," Fields, a senior, said. "I've got a couple of games left so I'm just happy. It's overwhelming me."

It was a balanced offensive effort for Nevada. Babbitt poured in 23 points and grabbed nine boards. Joey Shaw contributed 15 points and nine boards. Dario Hunt had 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting for Nevada and Pack point guard Armon Johnson finished with nine points and 11 assists.

"Brandon was huge for us the entire game," Babbitt said. "Everyone really played well, stepped up and played their roles. It's a good win at home. It was definitely a must-win for us...

"We just executed very well. We're an unselfish team. I don't know if you could just say it's ball movement. We executed better. Armon did a great job leading the team."

Nevada dominated the stat sheet. The Wolf Pack drained 35-of-62 (56.5 percent) field-goal attempts compared to New Mexico State's 35-of-74 (47.3 percent) effort. Nevada also finished with a 42-35 rebounding edge.

"We out-rebounded them down there (in the first meeting this winter between the two schools)," Nevada coach David Carter said. "The key for us out-rebounding teams is our guards. If they come out and rebound, I think we out-rebound a lot of teams."

Additionally, the Wolf Pack was a solid 24-of-30 from the foul line while the Aggies were just 13-25.

Thursday marked the third time Nevada has reached the century mark in scoring this season. That is its most occasions hitting triple digits since the 1991-92 squad did it four times. It's also the first time the Wolf Pack has gone for 100 against a WAC foe since drilling Rice 101-76 in the 2003-04 campaign.

"When you're pressing us, we have pretty good guards, guys that can finish so I thought we got some easy baskets," Carter said. "I thought Brandon started us off very well in the first half. Whenever you shoot 56 percent from the field, you get opportunities to score 100 points."

Thursday's first half was a back-and-forth affair. Nevada led 14-8 six minutes into the contest, but a 12-2 New Mexico State spurt saw the Aggies go on top 20-16. The Wolf Pack responded with eight unanswered points thanks to treys by Babbitt and Ray Kraemer and a Johnson runner for 24-20 lead midway through the initial half.

Nevada could not build on the lead. New Mexico State scored the next three baskets to forge ahead 26-24.

The Wolf Pack grabbed its second six-point edge of the half, 32-28, on a deep Fields 3-pointer from beyond the top of the key that left 5:45 on the first-half clock.

Nevada looked like it would take a lead into the intermission, but it could not hang on. Hunt dunk left the Pack ahead 41-37 with 1:43 left before the break. Unfortunately for the local squad, New Mexico State got an 18-foot jumper from Wendell McKines and a driving floater by Jahmar Young, leaving the scoreboard to read 41-41 at halftime.