The Hawaii men's basketball team beat San Jose State last night, 87-74, to win its fifth consecutive Western Athletic Conference game.
The Rainbows will try to make it a three-game West Coast sweep at Fresno State tomorrow.
"I knew that we would be sluggish at the start," UH coach Riley Wallace said last night. "But we worked our way through it.
"Everybody contributed and did their part. And the bench came through again."
Anthony Carter scored 21 points, Alika Smith added 20 and Hawaii pulled ahead to stay midway through the second half.
The Rainbows (14-3 overall, 6-1) remain on top of the WAC's Pacific Division. Fresno State, which beat San Diego State last night, 87-71, is in second place at 5-2, 13-8 overall.
Reserve forward Michael Robinson added 13 points for Hawaii, which amassed its highest point total of the season.
"We had to have this one to stay in first going into Fresno," Wallace said.
Olivier Saint-Jean scored 22 points for San Jose State (9-8, 1-6), but scored only eight points after the first 61/2 minutes of the game. Marmet Williams scored 13 points off the bench for the Spartans.
Saint-Jean, coming off a 33-point, 18-rebound game against Colorado State last Saturday, left the game with six minutes to play with a hamstring injury and did not return.
Hawaii, leading 43-39 two minutes into the second half, went on a 10-0 run to take a 53-39 lead with 15:44 left in the game.
Smith, who had 13 points in the second half, made two consecutive 3-pointers during the run. San Jose State never got closer than 12 points thereafter.
Smith had struggled from the outside in previous road games this season.
"Alika really stepped it up for us," Wallace said. "A.C. kept yelling at him to shoot it, which gave him confidence."
The rest of the Rainbows had the hot hand, too. UH shot 63 percent from the floor (34 for 54). The 'Bows led, 37-33 at halftime.
The Rainbows had 15 turnovers in the first half, but only six in the second.
"One of the keys was that we cut down our turnovers in the second half," Wallace said.
The Rainbows controlled the boards, 34-23, led by Seth Sundberg, who had 10 rebounds.
"We're bigger so we should (outrebound San Jose State)," Wallace said. "But I thought Seth really pounded the boards."
Hawaii returns home from the long road trip on Sunday and hosts UNLV on Thursday night.
WhoHawaii vs. Fresno State