Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Hawai'i
Men's Basketball Slips Past Hawaii 56-55
1/23/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 23, 2003
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Damon Jackson's fourth winning basket of the season, a layup with 10.7 seconds remaining, lifted Fresno State to a 56-55 victory over Hawaii Thursday.
Renaldo Major led the Bulldogs with 14 points. Jackson added 11, all coming in the final 4:18 of the game.
Following a Hawaii time-out, Carl English missed a 17-foot jumper with two seconds left. Neither team could secure the rebound before the buzzer sounded.
"I'm so proud of our guys because there is no quit in this team,." head coach Ray Lopes said. "We couldn't find a basket in the first half and Hawaii played a heck of a basketball game. We got going in the second half, and our defense was much better."
English led all scorers with 19 points despite shooting 6-of-18 from the field.
Fresno State improved to 14-3 overall and 7-1 in the Western Athletic Conference, opening a two-game lead over Tulsa in the WAC standings. The Bulldogs' are now 7-1 in games decided by three points or less and 9-1 when the margin of victory is 10 or less. Their last three wins have come by a combined total of four points.
Hawaii, which lost its second in a row, dipped to 11-4 overall and 4-3 in the WAC.
The Rainbow Warriors led 46-41 with five minutes left when the Bulldogs, who had trouble all game making shots from any length, climbed back into it. Renaldo Major hit a runner in the key, then Jackson made a three-pointer, his first points of the game, to tie the score 46-46.
UH grabbed a 55-54 lead with 2:01 to go when Mark Campbell drained a three-pointer.
With one minute to play, English had the ball stripped and bounce off his knee and go out of bounds to Fresno State. The Bulldogs called time out to set up one final play, which ended in Jackson's missed three, a Hiram Fuller rebound and pass to Jackson streaking toward the basket for the layup.
The game was played before 10,220 fans, the second sellout of the year. They went home happy as Fresno State snapped a four-game losing streak to UH>
"This win took guts tonight," Lopes said. "We never quit, never hung our heads. Our toughness is growing by the day. The players believe in their defense. They just have to keep grinding games out."
