Boise St. 44, Nevada 7

Sunday, Nov. 24, 2002 | 12:44 p.m.

RENO, Nev. AP) - Brock Forsey ran for 187 yards and four touchdowns to lead No. 23 Boise State to its 10th straight victory and an undefeated season in the Western Athletic Conference with a 44-7 win Saturday at Nevada.

Ryan Dinwiddie completed 10-of-15 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown for the Broncos (11-1, 8-0 in the WAC), who are headed to a postseason bowl for the third time in four years.

Nate Burleson, the nation's leading receiver, had seven catches for 71 yards to set a single-season reception record for Nevada (5-7, 4 (4)-, but the Bronco defense held him without a catch until the third quarter when the game had already been decided.

Boise State recovered a fumble, intercepted a pass and blocked a punt en route to a 27-0 halftime lead. The Broncos held Nevada to 87 yards total offense in the first half - 38 yards rushing and 125 yards passing on the game.

Forsey, who leads the NCAA in scoring with 29 touchdowns, ran 22 times in the first half for 119 yards and three touchdowns. He had 27 carries on the game with touchdowns of 4, 2, 1 and 38 yards, and set the school's single-season rushing record with 1,533 yards, breaking the old mark of 1,526 that Cedric Minter had in 1978.

Burleson was averaging nearly 12 catches and 142 yards per game and entered the contest needing 12 catches to set an NCAA record for receptions for a single season. He caught a 17-yard TD pass from freshman quarterback Jeff Rowe with 5:31 left in the game to finish the year with 138 receptions, breaking the Wolf Pack's single-season record of 134 Trevor Insley set in 1999.

Dinwiddie led Boise State on a 75-yard opening TD drive capped by Forsey's 4-yard run less than 5 minutes into the game. Nicheron Flowers fumbled on Nevada's first play from scrimmage and Bobby Hammer recovered on the Wolf Pack's 27-yard line to set up Forsey's second score to make it 14-0 at 7:34 in the first quarter.

Dinwiddie threw a 5-yard TD pass to Jay Swillie to open a 34-0 lead before leaving the game with 3:39 left in the third quarter. Nick Calaycay made all three field goal attempts from 21, 28 and 32 yards.

Boise State, which entered the game leading the NCAA in scoring averaging 46.8 points per game, won the WAC title to secure its third consecutive berth in the Humanitarian Bowl Dec. 31. But school officials said before the game a win might open up other possibilities as well, including an invitation to the Seattle Bowl.