FRESNO, Calif. » Coach Gib Arnold pinpointed the exact time Thursday night where some previous University of Hawaii basketball teams might have cracked.

It came with 2 minutes left in overtime when Fresno State’s Garrett Johnson made consecutive 3-pointers to slash what had been a seven-point Rainbow Warriors lead to one.

But UH didn’t crack. Instead, it kept feeding the ball inside to Vander Joaquim, who scored 10 of the Rainbow Warriors’ 16 overtime points en route to a 74-68 triumph before an announced crowd of 5,957.

Zane Johnson led Hawaii with 24 points, but it was Joaquim’s 23 points and 16 rebounds that made the biggest difference as UH recorded just its second victory in nine visits to the Save Mart Center.

"That’s who we are," Arnold said. "We’re going to throw that ball inside. We’ve got two guys that can really score down there. Joston (Thomas) was a little off tonight, but Vander picked up the slack."

With its first win in a Western Athletic Conference road opener since 2003-04, UH improved to 10-6 overall and 2-0 in conference play to set up an early-season battle with Nevada (13-3, 3-0) on Saturday for first place in the WAC.

"This is a mentally tough team," Arnold said. "When (Johnson) hit those back-to-back 3s to make it a one-point game, that’s the time where maybe a lot of times in the past we would’ve folded.

"But our guys were good, and we finished it. I couldn’t be more proud of them."

Joaquim didn’t just dominate in overtime. The junior center also rescued UH from a two-point deficit at the end of regulation by scoring in the post with 4.9 seconds left off an assist from Miah Ostrowski, who tallied a career-high 11.

After Joaquim tied the game at 58, Fresno State’s Kevin Olekaibe missed a desperation 30-footer at the buzzer to send the game into overtime.

Johnson led the Bulldogs (7-11, 0-3) with 18 points, while Olekaibe had 15, three below his season average.

Fresno State managed to stay close despite shooting 34.8 percent from the field compared to 51.9 percent from the Rainbows. The Bulldogs’ 21 offensive rebounds certainly helped.

"Our defense was solid the entire game," Arnold said. "Most of their early buckets came off of offensive rebounds. We ended up giving up 21 of them, and that was huge. It probably should’ve gotten us beat."

UH scored the first seven points of overtime. That marked a stark contrast to the opening minutes of the second half, when the Rainbow Warriors let a nine-point halftime lead evaporate by going 5:57 without a field goal.

Even though the Bulldogs twice tied the game, they didn’t take their first lead until Steven Shepp sank a 3-pointer with 15 seconds left in regulation to make it 58-56.

Johnson had the hot hand early for Hawaii. The senior guard scored 10 of UH’s first 16 points as the Rainbows raced to a 16-3 lead with 12:51 left.

The ‘Bows shot 54.2 percent in the first half, cooling off only during a 6-minute, 10-second stretch when Fresno State pieced together an 11-2 run.

Olekaibe scored all 11 Bulldogs points during the surge. But they were also his only points of the period.

Joaquim had just two first-half points before coming alive in the second as the Rainbows finally started taking advantage of Fresno State’s lack of size.

"I knew I had an advantage down there and was looking to be more aggressive," said Joaquim, who recorded his fifth double-double. "We just stayed tough as a team and ended up with a big win."

"Coach has us thinking about a sweep now, but Nevada is a tough team," Johnson said. "We’re going in there thinking we’re going to win, but we know it’s going to be a helluva fight."

Thomas had just six points with seven rebounds, but UH got double-digit efforts from Trevor Wiseman (11) and Garrett Jefferson (career-high 10).