RUSTON, La. — When Julian Sensley and Matt Lojeski score in double figures Hawai'i is supposed to win.

Unfortunately for the Rainbow Warriors, that formula failed to produce last night in a 65-62 Western Athletic Conference loss to Louisiana Tech at Thomas Assembly Center.

The loss dropped Hawai'i (8-5 overall, 2-1 in the WAC) out of first place, which now belongs to Tech (10-6, 3-0).

Entering yesterday's game, Hawai'i was 7-0 when its top two scorers reach double figures in the same game. Against Tech, Lojeski led a group of four Rainbow Warriors in double figures with a team-high 15 points, while Sensley added 11. But that wasn't enough.

"It's always tough to come in here and try to win a game," Sensley said. "It would have been huge because it would have put us in a secure spot in first place. Unfortunately, we just came up short."

Like most Tech-Hawai'i games — seven of the last eight meetings have been decided by four or fewer points — this one came down to the buzzer.

A Corey Dean free throw with 6.6 seconds left gave Tech a 65-62 lead. Hawai'i quickly moved the ball up the floor and got the ball to Lojeski on the right wing. Lojeski launched a fadeaway, turnaround 3-pointer, falling into the Rainbow Warrior bench.

The ball spun around the rim and out as the buzzer sounded, giving Tech its fourth consecutive win over the Rainbow Warriors and sending them to their 17th defeat in 19 road games.

"The last shot by Lojeski, I had an angle and it looked good all the way," Tech coach Keith Richard said. "Our games with them have been this way the last 4 1/2 years. I don't know why."

Tech, off to its first 3-0 WAC start since joining the conference in the 2001-02 season, built a quick 7-0 lead and led by as many as 10 with 2:09 left in the first half.

A tip-in by Sensley at the buzzer trimmed Tech's lead to 36-30 at halftime.

The second half was a grueling defensive battle as UH held Tech to 29 points and forced the Bulldogs to shoot just 28.6 percent from the field.

UH's defense allowed just four field goals in the final 14 minutes, but the play of Paul Millsap, the Bulldogs' bench and free-throw shooting carried Tech.

Millsap scored a game-high 23 points and grabbed 18 rebounds for his 55th career double-double. He was the only Tech player in double figures

"Paul Millsap is such an excellent post player," said Sensley, who was held to three second-half points. "We have a hard time guarding him. When you have someone like that, their whole team feeds off him."

UH had held Tech to just four points during a 7:56 stretch in the second half when Millsap knocked down a 3-pointer. It was just his fifth career 3-pointer, but second in his last three games, including a game-winning buzzer beater at Boise State last Thursday.

The shot gave Tech's flagging second-half offense some juice.

"I just thought I needed to help the team," Millsap said. "It wasn't going too good inside, so I said I'll take one outside."

Millsap also converted a big three-point play with 2:20 to play to give Tech a 59-57 lead and his bucket with 44 seconds left gave Tech a 63-60 lead.

Tech's bench outscored UH 19-0 and the Bulldogs converted 20 of 26 free throws, while the Warriors were just 8 of 16.

"Eight for 16 (at the free-throw line), and you lose a three-point game," UH coach Riley Wallace lamented. "You can always point fingers at it, but I'm not going to say the free-throw shooting beat you."

Now UH must turn its attention to New Mexico State, where it plays tomorrow.

"We can't hang our heads about it," said "Big Matt" Gipson, who scored 14 points. "This was a big game and would have been a big win. The important thing for us is to pick up and move on to New Mexico State. It will hurt tonight, but tomorrow we'll only think about the Aggies."