The two-year road losing streak is dead and buried. Now the Hawaii men’s basketball team will try to create another streak, on its own court and own terms.

A win today over Fresno State at the Stan Sheriff Center would give the Rainbow Warriors their first consecutive victories in Western Athletic Conference play since 2008-09.

Attainable? Definitely, but not without a solid follow-up effort to UH’s breakthrough performance at Louisiana Tech last week, in which the Rainbows made the late plays and clawed out of last place in the WAC.

"We’re riding high, but we have to keep our heads level," said junior guard Zane Johnson, UH’s leading scorer at 14.7 points per game. "We can’t come out lackadaisical and let them punch us first in the first 4 minutes like we have in the last couple games."

While UH (10-8, 1-5 WAC) got new life from the win, it will look to keep the inconsistent Bulldogs (7-9, 3-3) on a recent downward trend.

Conference rival FSU has lost three straight coming into Honolulu, most recently at Idaho on Monday. Fresno’s defense has been solid, but the Bulldogs have lacked a consistent offensive threat since the early departure of forward Paul George to the NBA after last year.

Its most notable player is 6-foot-10, 250-pound sophomore center Greg Smith, last season’s WAC freshman of the year who got off to a slow start this season with averages of 10.6 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.

"They’re capable of beating anybody in this conference," UH coach Gib Arnold said. "They’re a very good team. … They say (Smith) is the No. 1 guy the NBA has most on their radar from this conference. He’s going to be a load for us."

Keeping him in check will be a must for the Rainbows to win, and that task falls first to UH sophomore center Vander Joaquim.

Joaquim has some prior experience against Smith, having played against him at Amare Stoudemire’s summer camp for big men in Phoenix in the summer of 2009.

"He is pretty physical. He’s got a fadeaway jumper and a hook shot too," said Joaquim, who’s averaged 11.5 points and 9.2 rebounds in WAC play. "Offensively, I’ll just try to do what I’ve been doing. Just catch it in the paint with two feet, (and shoot) jump hooks."

It’s tough to call it a rivalry with so many new faces on both sides, and an entirely new coaching staff for UH. But there is an interesting twist; UH associate head coach Walter Roese is a former BYU assistant under Steve Cleveland, who is now head coach at Fresno.

"He told me he had the game prep (scout duty), and I said that’s good. You know all about me," Cleveland said with a laugh. "But unfortunately I’m not playing. The players are playing. But it’s great to see Walter. We had a great relationship and we experienced some wonderful things as we built that program."

It’s become increasingly difficult to predict Hawaii’s lineups from game to game. While Joaquim and senior forward Bill Amis are entrenched in the frontcourt, sophomore swingman Joston Thomas has come off the bench in the past three games. And the UH backcourt offers some intrigue; Arnold said he’d continue to use a dual point guard starting lineup (senior Hiram Thompson and freshman Bobby Miles) against athletic teams who apply open-court pressure, as Fresno does to an extent.

But UH got heady play late vs. LaTech from junior guard Miah Ostrowski, a December addition from the Warriors football team who played a career-high 12 minutes. In the final minutes, Ostrowski remained in the game instead of Thompson or Miles and helped ice the win with a key steal and alley-oop lob to Thomas, followed by two free-throw makes.

When asked if the former Punahou product could see more crunch-time action, Arnold responded positively.

"I wanted to stay positive," Ostrowski said. "By having that positive attitude, it led to me having a positive game. It was a key win for us."

One that the Rainbows hope leads to another.