The University of Hawai'i women's basketball team is in a free fall and little seems to work.

It was a familiar storyline for the Rainbow Wahine in a 71-45 loss last night to Fresno State before 205 at the Stan Sheriff Center.

Fresno State forced 27 turnovers and scored 41 points off of them.

But what made last night's result a bit eerie was Fresno State coach Adrian Wiggins effectively used an offensive system he borrowed from former Rainbow Wahine coach Vince Goo (1987-'04) — the predecessor to current coach Jim Bolla.

Fresno State hit 12 3-pointers with the help of a "high-low" offense, which led to open perimeter shots.

Fresno State went on a 27-4 run to take a 40-18 advantage with 52 seconds left in the first half. The Bulldogs hit five 3-pointers during the surge with Jaleesa Ross scoring nine points — all on 3-pointers — and Marnique Arnold adding eight.

"We shoot a lot of 3s," Wiggins said. "What got us going was we went to our high-low game. We picked that up a long time ago from Coach Goo. Remember Coach Goo? Coach Goo ran a lot of high-low and we ran a lot of high-lows tonight and that really helped us."

Fresno State improved to 13-6 overall and 4-2 in the WAC. Hawai'i dropped its seventh straight and fell to 3-15 and 0-5.

Bolla once again used a 5-for-5 platoon system.

Hawai'i started guards Catherine Cho and Keisha Kanekoa, and forwards Tara Hittle, Dita Liepkalne and Ebony Jones.

At the under-16 minute timeout, they were replaced by Briauna Linton, Jennifer Hamilton, Megan Tinnin, Breanna Arbuckle and Allie Patterson.

The units rotated approximately every four minutes from then on until midway through the second half. By that time, Hawai'i was down by 20.

"We've been doing that for the last three games to give our people a spell and get some of the young people in and put some pressure on them," Bolla said. "We're getting our younger people some game experience and hopefully we can disrupt the other team."

While the strategy gave everyone an equal chance to contribute, it didn't prevent Hawai'i from getting its 11th double-digit loss of the season.

Neither unit for Hawai'i could hang on to the ball, effectively defend the 3 or prevent the Bulldogs from crashing the offensive boards.

Fresno State had 36 rebounds, including 17 offensive boards.

"That's no secret, that's one of our problems — rebounding," Bolla said. "We can't block people out. We refuse to block people out."

Walker scored 17 points, Ross added 15 and Hayley Munro had 14 for Fresno State, which also beat Hawai'i, 78-50, on Jan. 8.

Fresno State hoisted up 38 3-point attempts among its 67 field-goal attempts.

Ross and Walker each hit five 3-pointers for Fresno State, which averaged 28.8 3-point attempts per game entering last night.

"We wanted to defend their drives first," Tinnin said. "We were going to let them shoot. Obviously, they're a 3-point shooting team and we're going to let them take that shot and dare them to shoot it."

Tinnin led Hawai'i with 14 points, including 12 in the second half.

Hawai'i led 14-13 after a field goal by Cho with 11:13 left in the first half. But then Fresno State answered with its huge run.

Fresno State made 7 of 22 3-point attempts in the first half, and had 10 offensive rebounds.

Hawai'i was 8 of 23 from the field, including 0 of 2 from 3-point range, and committed 17 turnovers by halftime.

"You can't turn the ball over 27 times against anybody," Bolla said. "And I would say half of the 27 were careless on our part. We walk with the ball before we dribble, we try to do a spin move and walk, and throw a pass out of bounds."

A 3-pointer by Munro — the first points of the second half —gave Fresno State a 43-20 lead.

Hawai'i got within 16 twice, the final time at 59-43. The Bulldogs ended the game with a 12-2 run.

Hawai'i will host Utah State tomorrow at 5 p.m.

DIVISION II MEN

UH-HILO 102, NOTRE DAME DE NAMUR 93

John Smith led six UH-Hilo players in double figures with 21 points as the Vulcans held off Notre Dame de Namur (4-13, 0-7 PacWest) in four overtimes last night in a Pacific West Conference men's basketball game in Belmont, Calif. Perry Baggett scored 19 points for the Vulcans (9-7, 3-3), while Charlando Brown and Jay DeMaestri each added 18, Jacob Briggs had 14 and Brandon Price scored 10.

DIVISION II WOMEN

NOTRE DAME DE NAMUR 80, UH-HILO 71

Britni Rathke scored 24 points to lead Notre Dame de Namur over UH-Hilo in a Pacific West Conference women's basketball game last night at Belmont Calif. Sheila Azevedo led the Vulcans (7-6, 2-4 PacWest) with 29 points. Notre Dame de Namur is 6-12, 3-4.