Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Hawai'i
Fresno State Men's Basketball Floats Over Hawaii, 79-69
3/4/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 4, 2000
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Courtney Alexander scored 24 points to lead Fresno State to a 79-69 victory over Hawaii in Western Athletic Conference play Saturday night.
Fresno State (21-9l, 11-3 WAC) clinched second place in the conference with the win and will host the WAC tournament beginning Thursday.
Troy Ostler led Hawaii (16-11, 5-9) with 19 points before fouling out with just over five minutes left in the game.
Fresno State opened the second half with an 18-5 run to take 58-34 lead. Alexander scored seven to spark the Bulldogs in that run and Demetrius Porter had five points.
Hawaii trimmed the lead to 17 points several times, the last at 68-51 with just under six minutes left in the game. But Fresno ran off six-straight points for a 23-point lead with five minutes to go, allowing the starters to sit out the rest of the game.
Porter finished with 14 points for Fresno while Larry Abney added 11 and also had a game-high 15 rebounds.
Pedrag Savovic had 13 for Hawaii and Marquette Alexander finished with 12.
Hawaii jumped out to an 11-2 lead with five points from Pedrag Savovic and four by Troy Ostler. But Fresno outscored Hawaii 24-9 over the next nine minutes to lead 26-20. Alexander hit a 3-pointer to start the run and had nine of the Fresno points. Alexander also hit another 3 just before halftime to give Fresno its 40-29 lead.
