The depleted Bulldogs showed they still have bite in a 69-58 victory over the University of Hawai'i men's basketball team last night.

"This is definitely big," said Fresno State guard Marcus West, who scored a game-high 21 points. "We're the WAC champs and we have to show teams we plan on defending it."

A crowd of 6,675 at the Stan Sheriff Center watched the Rainbow Warriors drop to 8-3, ending a six-game winning streak.

Fresno State, which had three scholarships cut after last season due to an academic scandal and two starters suspended for last night's game, improved to 5-5. It was the WAC opener for both teams.

"I've never had a team that didn't show up to play Fresno," UH head coach Riley Wallace said. "They just out-hustled us, out-coached us, out-played us tonight. It was a good old WAC butt kicking."

Prior to last night, Hawai'i had won 24 of its last 25 WAC games in the Stan Sheriff Center.

"For us not to show the effort and let them take us out of everything that we wanted to do is very disappointing," Wallace said.

The Bulldogs showed why they can still be called the chairmen of the boards in the conference. They out-rebounded Hawai'i by an astounding 38-16 margin.

Mustafa Al-Sayyad, Fresno State's 6-foot-9 center, nearly out-rebounded Hawai'i himself. He finished with 13 points and a career-high 15 rebounds.

"It's not like they were really any bigger than us," said UH forward Jeff Blackett. "They just wanted the rebounds and it seems like we didn't. We're a team that should be out-rebounding the other team every night and we got killed on the glass tonight."

Phil Martin led Hawai'i with 18 points, but grabbed only two rebounds.

Julian Sensley led UH with five assists and five rebounds, and he did it with a bruised left shoulder. He started last night's game and played 34 minutes despite missing the last two practices because of the injury.

"He was just out there, going through the motions, basically," Wallace said. "We needed a double-double out of him to win tonight."

Instead, Sensley scored a season-low one point. He only attempted one field goal in the game.

Logan Lee added 11 points and Michael Kuebler 10 for the 'Bows.

Kuebler entered the game as the WAC's leading scorer with 20.9 points per game, but had his worst shooting night of the season. He finished 3 of 16 from the field, including 2 of 11 from 3-point range.

"Everything was on Kuebler's shoulders in a game like this and he just couldn't go," Wallace said.

As badly as they played, the 'Bows stayed close to the Bulldogs for the first 35 minutes of the 40-minute game.

The lead changed 11 times in the first half, with neither team leading by more than five. West scored 14 in the first half, including 4 of 4 shooting from 3-point range, helping Fresno State to a 37-33 lead at intermission.

"It was raining the whole time we were here and (yesterday) it stopped," West said. "So coach said it was our turn to rain on (Hawai'i)."

Fresno State entered the game ranked last in the WAC in scoring offense and team field goal percentage. Last night, the Bulldogs reached their season high in points and shot 50 percent (23 of 46) from the field, their second-best percentage of the season.

"We found a way to win the game tonight and that's with toughness," Fresno State head coach Ray Lopes said.

Martin scored the first five points of the second half to put Hawai'i back ahead, 38-37. But the Bulldogs responded with a 10-2 run — highlighted by a power dunk from 6-10, 330-pound Jack Marlow — to regain control at 47-40.

UH got as close as 49-47 on a 3-pointer by Jason Carter with 9:53 remaining, but never any closer.

"In the second half ... we just collapsed," Lee said.

Hawai'i's fate was all but sealed with 4:27 remaining when center Haim Shimonovich fouled out. He finished with just two points and three rebounds. Fresno State made 11 of 12 free throws in the final 1:41 to put the game away.

Hawai'i will continue WAC play by hosting preseason conference favorite Nevada tomorrow at 7:05 p.m.