It’s tough to win a basketball game when you only play three quarters of it. Essentially, that’s what the Southern Illinois Salukis did Sunday afternoon, gave away nearly a quarter of the game.

Southern Illinois, did not score for nine and a half minutes in the second half and it paid dearly as Nevada rolled to a 62-48 non-conference win over its Missouri Valley Conference guests.

Southern Illinois took a 31-30 lead after a hook shot by Cornelius Christian at the 17:14 mark of the second half. It was the Salukis’ final lead of the game. Southern Illinois proceeded to go scoreless for the next 9:25 of the contest while Nevada reeled off 16 unanswered points.

“It was nice to see us improve (defensively), but there’s a long ways to go. Still, it’s nice to know we can get a lot better.” Wolf Pack freshman Luke Babbitt said.

Christian’s bucket was the Salukis’ only shot that found the bottom of the twine of their first 19 attempts after halftime. Southern Illinois connected on just 7-of-34 (20.6 percent) shots after the break. It finished 15-of-53 (28.3 percent) from the field on the day.

“We missed a lot of inside touches. When you throw it in there and miss layups, that’s tough,” Southern Illinois coach Chris Lowery said.

The Wolf Pack, which did not hold an opponent under 50 points in a single game during the 2007-08 season, has now done it in back-to-back affairs this season. Nevada beat Division II Sonoma State 95-39 Tuesday.

“We got into a stance and we established help side more effectively and efficiently than we’d previously done and we played smarter,” Nevada coach Mark Fox said. You didn’t see us make as many mistakes as we had been making.”

Nevada , which trailed by three at halftime, 27-24, outscored its foes from Carbondale , Ill. 38-21 in the second half. The shooting disparity between the two schools was the main reason. Nevada made good on 10-of-19 (52.6 percent) shots after the intermission and 19-of-44 (43.2 percent) overall.

In addition to its better shooting touch, Nevada held a big advantage at the free-throw line. Southern Illinois shot a solid 14-of-16 at the charity stripe but Nevada was 21-of-24.

After the Salukis’ second-half drought, Nevada had a 46-31 lead. Still, Southern Illinois did not go away. SIU fought back and trimmed Nevada ’s lead to six, 52-46, after a 3-pointer by Bryan Mullins left six minutes on the clock.

The margin was still six, 54-48, after Salukis post Tony Boyle had a putback with 4:17 remaining in the game. Southern Illinois did not get any closer. In fact, it did not even score again.

Nevada scored the final eight points of the game and sealed Southern Illinois ’ losing fate.

Armon Johnson, who scored just two points before halftime, finished with a team-high 16 points for Nevada . Babbitt and Malik Cooke added 15 and 10 points to the Wolf Pack’s winning cause.

Boyle and Mullins scored 14 and 13 points to lead SIU.

“This is the best team we’ve beaten (this year),” Fox said. “They are a good basketball team. They have a lot of inexperience like we do and they have not played a cupcake schedule. I have a lot of respect for the way they do things.”

In the first half, the offensive execution was far from exciting. The two teams combined for just 51 points and neither team lead by more than four.

The Wolf Pack looked like it might find an offensive rhythm after Brandon Fields knocked down a 15-foot jumper and Joey Shaw drained a 3-pointer from the corner on back-to-back Nevada possessions. The perimeter shots gave the Wolf Pack a 19-15 lead with 8:13 showing on the first-half clock.

Unfortunately for Nevada fans, the buckets did not spark the Pack to bigger things. Southern Illinois (3-5) responded with three straight baskets. Mullins capped the modest spurt with a fade-away jumper from the baseline and the Salukis had a 21-19 edge at the 6:51 mark of the first half.

Salukis freshman guard Kevin Dillard capped the first-half scoring when he converted a pair of foul shots to give his squad a 27-24 lead. That was the score as the teams headed into the locker room at halftime.

Nevada, which got out-rebounded 19-10 in the first 20 minutes, made good on just 9-of-25 shots in the first half as it faced the three-point margin at the midway point.

“It was a good win and a hard-fought game. We practiced hard the last couple of days and it showed in the game,” Nevada ’s Brandon Fields said.

The Wolf Pack (5-4) is in action again Wednesday when it hosts Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 7:05 p.m.