Burton leads Wolf Pack to rare road victory

RUSTON, La. (AP) - Deonte Burton scored 24 points as Nevada held on to defeat Louisiana Tech 73-70 on Thursday night.

Burton went 8-for-13 from the floor, including 4-for-5 from beyond the 3-point arc.

The Wolf Pack (12-17, 8-7 Western Athletic Conference) led 63-54 with 3:42 left to play, but a 16-8 run, capped by a Lonnie Smith 3-pointer with 6 seconds on the cock, pulled the Bulldogs to 71-70.

Louisiana Tech (12-19, 2-13) failed to get off another shot attempt after Cordarius Johnson turned it over with 2 seconds to go.

In the first half, the teams stayed within a basket or two of each other until Derrell Conner's bucket with four seconds left gave Nevada a 29-23 at the break,

Malik Story added 15 points, Dario Hunt had 13 and Olek Czyz 12 for Nevada, which scored 29 points off 26 turnovers.

Kenyon McNeaill scored 21 points for the Bulldogs, who scored only seven points off 13 Wolf Pack miscues.

Louisiana Tech shot 56.8 percent from the floor (25 of 44), outrebounded Nevada 36-24 and posted a 30-24 scoring edge in the paint.