Fresno State 84, Tulsa 77

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) _ Demetrius Porter scored 22 points to lead Fresno State to an 84-77 victory over Tulsa Saturday night. <br><br>Fresno State (24-5, 13-3) had to hold off a late Tulsa rally for the

Sunday, March 4th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) _ Demetrius Porter scored 22 points to lead Fresno State to an 84-77 victory over Tulsa Saturday night.

Fresno State (24-5, 13-3) had to hold off a late Tulsa rally for the win, its 15th-straight at home. Melvin Ely added 18 for Fresno and Chris Jefferies finished with 16.

Antonio Reed led Tulsa (19-10, 10-6) with 16 points, 11 of those in the second half. Dante Swanson added 14 for Tulsa and Greg Harrington had 11.

Fresno State led by 20 less than three minutes into the second half but Tulsa rallied to cut the lead to 78-75 with 58 seconds left.

Fresno State trailed by one early but an 18-5 run gave the Bulldogs a 23-11 lead with less than eight minutes left in the half.

Tulsa got as close as five but Fresno ran off eight straight points on a basket by Ely and 3-pointers from Jefferies and Porter to take a 40-30 halftime lead.

Fresno opened the second half with 10 straight points, seven of those by Porter, to lead 50-30.

Tito Maddox added 11 for Fresno State.