Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Hawai'i
No. 23 Fresno St. Downs Hawaii, 86-63
2/11/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 11, 2001
Fresno State turned up the defensive pressure to get back at Hawaii.
Melvin Ely scored 22 points and No. 23 Fresno State forced 26 turnovers in an 86-63 victory Sunday.
"Defensively, our guys played an incredible game," coach Jerry Tarkanian said. "But offensively, we still need work. We had just way too many turnovers."
Eleven days earlier, Hawaii snapped Fresno State's 13-game winning streak with a 91-73 home victory.
"Their pressure got to us much more today than it did in the first game," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said. "We knew we had to take care of the ball and we didn't. Our guards had 14 turnovers between them."
Fresno State (20-3, 9-1 WAC) reached 20 victories for the sixth consecutive season under Tarkanian. It is Tarkanian's 29th 20-win season, one shy of the record held by Dean Smith.
Ely also had nine rebounds and four blocks.
"He was a force tonight. When we did run our offense and get the ball inside, he intimidated us," Wallace said.
Tito Maddox added 15 points and eight rebounds for Fresno State, Demetrius Porter scored 13 points, and Chris Jefferies and Shannon Swillis each had 12.
Predrag Savovic led Hawaii (10-12, 4-7) with 24 points, 18 in the first half, and Troy Ostler finished with 15 points.
Hawaii trailed by eight at halftime and cut the lead to six on Phil Martin s basket less than 10 seconds into the second half. But then Fresno State took control.
Maddox scored seven points and Ely added six in a 18-2 run over the next six minutes. Hawaii had just two free throws by Savovic in that run.
Trailing by 22 with just under 12 minutes left, Hawaii used a 14-4 run to close to 69-57 with six minutes to go. Martin hit six straight free throws, and English added five points to lead Hawaii.
Fresno State countered with six straight points for a 75-57 lead with just over three minutes left.
