RENO, Nev. - Nevada is finally starting to look like the team that was picked to win the Western Athletic Conference.

Luke Babbitt scored 21 points and all five starters finished in double figures as the Wolf Pack (20-11) poured in seven 3-pointers in the first half en route to an 87-71 win over Idaho on Thursday night in the WAC tournament quarterfinals.

"We've had our ups and downs this year," said Babbitt, a 6-foot-9 sophomore forward who was named the WAC's player of the year.

"We haven't played well on the road but our team is peaking now and it's a great time to peak," he said. "If we lose, our season is over. Nobody wanted that to happen."

Brandon Fields had 15 points, Joey Shaw 14, Armon Johnson 13 and Dario Hunt 12 for the second-seeded Wolf Pack (20-11), who shot 55 percent from the field and made 10 of 18 from 3-point range in the game.

Nevada advances to tonight's semifinal against third-seeded New Mexico State (19-11). The tournament winner earns an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

"The starters came out with great energy and got off to a great start and that's something that's very important for us," first-year Nevada coach David Carter said. "The best is yet to come. We still have a lot of good basketball ahead of us."

Luciano de Souza had 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field for Idaho (15-16), which shot 40 percent from the field and missed 8 of 19 free throws. Former North Idaho College standout Mac Hopson added 15 points and six assists and Marvin Jefferson 14 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for the seventh-seeded Vandals.

"We just didn't hit enough shots," said Hopson, a senior. "That's how it goes sometimes. We kept fighting but we couldn't get it going."

Babbitt is the only player in the country this season to shoot at least 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3-point range and 90 percent from the free-throw line. He entered the tournament ranked 11th in the nation in scoring with 21.7 points per game and leading the WAC with 9.3 rebounds per outing.

He set the tone with a long, game-opening 3-pointer from above the top of the key as Nevada raced out to a 13-2 lead. Ray Kraemer, Shaw and Fields each added back-to-back 3-pointers in the first 12 minutes of the game as the Wolf Pack hit seven of their first 11 attempts from long range.

Idaho coach Don Verlin said it was the best first half he'd seen Nevada play all season.

"Luke Babbitt hit a 3 to start the game and off they went. We never got the game into the tempo that we wanted," Verlin said.

"We kept telling the guys, 'Weather the storm. They'll start to miss some shots.' But they just kept putting it in the basket. Give them credit," he said.

De Souza opened the second half with a bank shot to cut Nevada's lead to 47-36. But the Wolf Pack answered with a 13-4 run that included two slam dunks from Hunt and a 3-point play from Fields when he was fouled on a basket and made the free throw for a 60-40 lead at 16:31.

Hopson hit a 3-pointer from the left baseline and Jefferson followed a basket inside with a 17-foot jumper to cut it to 70-53 with 8:05 remaining.

The Wolf Pack opened their biggest lead about a minute later when Hunt's free throw made it 79-58.

Shawn Henderson's 15-footer and Jefferson's thundering dunk off a rebound helped cut it to 81-65. And De Souza's 3-pointer pulled the Vandals to within 83-69 at 1:51 but they could get no closer.

Top-seeded Utah State (26-6), which won the regular-season WAC title for the third year in a row, will take a 16-game winning streak into the other semifinal Friday night against fourth-seeded Louisiana Tech (23-9).