The University of Hawai'i men's basketball team proved it does not belong on the bottom of the Western Athletic Conference with a 73-69 road victory over Fresno State last night.

The Rainbow Warriors moved into sole possession of sixth place in the WAC by completing a home-and-home sweep of the last-place Bulldogs.

In a game nationally televised on ESPN2 from the Save Mart Center in Fresno, Calif., Roderick Flemings had 22 points and 12 rebounds to lead a balanced Hawai'i attack.

"We didn't do things to beat ourselves," Hawai'i head coach Bob Nash said. "We stayed in our offense, we stayed focused no matter what the situation, and I thought our defense really stepped up in the second half."

The 'Bows improved to 13-12 overall and 5-8 in the WAC. Hawai'i may have played itself out of the play-in game for the WAC Tournament because it now owns sweeps of eighth-place Louisiana Tech and ninth-place Fresno State.

Fresno State dropped to 10-17 and 2-10.

Unlike the first meeting between the teams two weeks ago in Honolulu — where Hawai'i raced to a 34-10 lead en route to a 69-43 victory — this one was close from start to finish.

The lead changed eight times in the first half, and neither team led by more than six. Hawai'i had a 28-22 lead with 5:13 remaining, but the score was tied at 32 at intermission.

"We knew it was going to be tougher this time," Nash said. "They were at home this time, and we knew they wanted to show that they were a better team than the last time. But we were prepared. We got here (in Fresno) early and had a couple of good practices."

The score was tied for the last time at 43 with 11:27 to play.

Hawai'i then took a 48-43 lead and stayed in front the rest of the way. But the 'Bows could never pull away from the Bulldogs, and the lead was never greater than six.

Fresno State got as close as 65-64 on a dunk by Sylvester Seay with 1:17 remaining, but the 'Bows responded with back-to-back layups by Bill Amis and Brandon Adams to put it away.

"Give credit to our guys, every time Fresno came at us, we responded," Nash said. "We came up with some big defensive stops and then went down on the other end and hit shots when we needed to."

Flemings, a 6-foot-7 junior, has had two of his best all-around games against the Bulldogs. In the two wins against Fresno State, he averaged 18 points and 12.5 rebounds per game.

"Rod got another double-double, and that was big because we wanted to control the boards, and I thought we did that," Nash said. "He could have played better defense, but for the most part, he played really well."

The 'Bows went primarily with a rotation of just six players, and all six responded with solid games:

• Guard Kareem Nitoto had 12 points, five assists and four rebounds.

• Power forward Amis had 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting.

• Center Paul Campbell had eight points and three blocked shots.

• Point guard Hiram Thompson contributed eight points on 4-of-6 shooting, and six assists.

• Reserve forward Adams scored 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting.

"I thought those guys had something going and I didn't want to disrupt that," Nash said. "With the game being on ESPN, the timeouts are a little longer, so I knew they'd be getting rest during the timeouts."

The only other Hawai'i player to see action was Adhar Mayen, and he played just five minutes in the second half.

The 'Bows shot 50 percent from the field (28 of 56), and out-rebounded the Bulldogs 32-27.

Hawai'i also went 17 of 21 from the free-throw line, with Flemings going 12 of 13.

However, the 'Bows went 0 for 4 from 3-point range, marking the second consecutive game that they did not make a 3-pointer. Prior to the last two games, Hawai'i had made at least one 3-pointer in 135 consecutive games.

Seay led the Bulldogs with 22 points and nine rebounds. Paul George added 16 points, and Nedeljko Golubovic scored 15.

Fresno State shot 44.4 percent from the field, including 39.1 percent in the decisive second half.

Hawai'i's win — just its second on the road this season — came five days after a heartbreaking 47-46 home loss to Nevada.

"This time of year, you have to have a short memory," Nash said. "It's all about gearing up for the WAC Tournament, and that's what we're looking at right now."

In any case, the 'Bows will not have time to celebrate. They return home today to prepare for a non-conference game tomorrow against UC Irvine.

Because of the need to get to Honolulu as soon as possible, the 'Bows will split up on three different flights today. The entire team is expected back by this afternoon, and is scheduled to practice in the early evening.

"It's not an ideal situation, obviously," Nash said. "But we'll deal with it as best we can."

UC Irvine, meanwhile, arrived in Honolulu last night.

The Anteaters are 9-17 overall and 6-7 in the Big West Conference. They upset Big West leader Cal State Northridge, 73-51, on Wednesday.