By BRET H. MCCORMICK

Associate Sports Editor

In a game that head coach Keith Richard said was one of the biggest road wins of his career, the Bulldogs defeated Hawaii 62-61 last Thursday night.

Leading 27-26 at the half, the Bulldogs and Rainbows battled back and forth in the second half.

The Bulldogs opened the second half by scoring the first nine points to take a 36-26 lead, but Hawaii responded with a 12-0 run of its own to take a 38-36 lead.

The contest featured 24 lead changes, the last of which came when Dean's 12-foot jumper with 47.1 seconds remaining gave the Bulldogs the 62-61 lead.

Hawaii had the ball with the lead in the final minute, but Allick stole a pass by junior guard Michael Kuebler and set up Dean's final bucket.

Hawaii held possession of the ball for the remainder of the game, but Julian Sensley's 3-pointer at the buzzer bounced off of the rim.

Sensley, who lit up the Bulldogs for a career-high 19 points in Hawaii's 67-60 win over the Bulldogs in Ruston last month, was held to just 12 points in the game.

Kuebler, who is second in the Western Athletic Conference in scoring at 18.9 points per game, was held to just 4-of-13 shooting for 15 points.

"I'm extremely proud of our team in light of some adversity we had tonight," Richard said after the game.

Two players -- junior guards JueMichael Young and Bruce Edwards -- were suspended for disciplinary reasons, while Millsap and sophomore guard Eric Woods both started the game on the bench for disciplinary reasons.

Freshman forward Paul Millsap, who for the first time all season started the game on the bench, led the Bulldogs against Hawaii with 19 points and eight rebounds.

Wayne Powell added 15 points, Donell Allick had 13 and Corey Dean finished with 12 for the Bulldogs.

However, the Bulldogs could not build on the momentum of winning in perhaps the toughest building in the WAC, as they dropped a 56-53 contest to San Jose State in overtime just two days later.

The loss dropped the Bulldogs to 12-11 overall and 6-7 in WAC play.

The loss dropped them one game behind Boise State and Fresno State and into seventh place in the conference standings, as they fight to finish in the top six and avoid a first round game in the WAC Tournament.

San Jose picked up its first conference win of the season and snapped a 13-game losing streak against the Bulldogs, upping its record to 6-16 and 1-11 in the WAC.

Both teams struggled in the first half, shooting less than 30 percent from the field, and the Bulldogs took a 19-18 lead into halftime. The 19 points were the least the Bulldogs had scored in the first half all season.

The Spartans opened a second-half lead as big as 11 points, but the Bulldogs battled back to tie the game at 43 at the end of regulation.

Powell made his first career 3-pointer against the Spartans, and he followed that one up with two more three-pointers in overtime, as he led the Bulldogs with 16 points.

His second 3-pointer gave the Bulldogs a 51-46 lead with 3:01 remaining in overtime.

However, the Spartans outscored the Bulldogs 10-2 the rest of the game for the victory.

In addition to Powell's 16, Dean scored 12 points. Millsap finished with just six points, but he did pull down 10 rebounds.

The Bulldogs return home Saturday for a 2 p.m. tip-off with Southern Methodist, the first of three consecutive home games.