LAS VEGAS -- The start was not typical, well short in fact, even for a team that on most nights does not shoot the basketball particularly well.

But neither was the end, when it was Fresno State with possession and a lead and coach Rodney Terry there on the sidelines pumping his fist triumphantly as the Bulldogs were dribbling out the clock with wide eyes and wider grins over what they were about to accomplish in 5, 4, 3, 2 seconds and then 1.

"Made a little history," Terry said, a big smile on his face.

The Bulldogs did the improbable after a dreadful start in which they missed 12 of their first 13 shots.

All of a sudden, they knocked down everything, put together a stellar effort at the defensive end and came away with a 61-52 victory over UNLV on Saturday at the Thomas & Mack Center, sweeping a season series from the Rebels and winning at UNLV for the first time in school history.

In doing so, Fresno State (11-18, 5-11 Mountain West) also put a somewhat different spin on their return trip to Las Vegas on Monday for the conference tournament. In pulling the upset, the Bulldogs clinched the No. 7 seed and will play second-seeded Colorado State at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

"You want to be playing your best basketball at this time of year and I think we're doing that," Terry said. "Over the last five games, we're playing our best basketball and against good competition."

Against the Rebels, they pressed it up a bit. Kevin Foster came off the bench 7 minutes in, missed his first two shots in that 1 of 13 start, then couldn't miss. He scored 10 in a row at one point, had 19 at halftime, one more than he had over the past three games, and finished with 25.

Kevin Olekaibe nailed a couple of 3-pointers in that stretch, as well, and finished with 13 points and a career-high eight assists.

Freshman Robert Upshaw, who has struggled much of the season, was a presence around the basket, grabbing 11 rebounds including four at the offensive end. He also scored six points, showing some post moves that haven't been evident much of the year.

Fresno State at one point scored on 8 of 9 trips down the floor, which hasn't happened very often for a team that had made 39% of its shots and came in ranked 332nd out of 345 Division I teams in field-goal percentage. Six of those baskets came from Foster.

That it all came together on the road, in front of a loud 17,707 and on the Rebels' Senior Day just made the smiles that much bigger. The Bulldogs had absorbed some tough losses on the road against the teams in the top half of the conference.

"Coach told us that if we just take our time ... we've just got to believe, basically. You've just got to believe the game is going to come to us and that's what happened," Foster said.

Said Olekaibe: "We didn't make shots in the beginning, but we just stuck to it. My shot started falling and Foster's shot started falling. It just gave everybody confidence."

Fresno State pushed its lead to as many as 11 points, led by 36-31 at halftime, then had to work its way through a second half in which it hit 8 of 29 shots.

Upshaw was big there, giving the Bulldogs an inside defensive presence. UNLV (23-8, 10-6) got stuck at the 3-point line and, coach Dave Rice said, never did get in a rhythm offensively.

"We didn't move the ball early and so we were out of sync offensively," Rice said, "and then toward the middle and later in the game we panicked a little bit because we were down, tried to hit home run plays and so we took too many 3-point shots and it was a situation where we just never quite got in sync."

Fresno State held UNLV to 33.3% shooting (18 of 54), including 5 of 25 in the second half. The Rebels were 4 of 21 on 3-pointers.

"The rebounds were big. The blocks were big," Terry said. "Just having a presence inside, if someone came inside there was someone waiting for you."

MWC tournament

FRESNO STATE VS. COLORADO STATE

Wednesday: 2:30 p.m. in Las Vegas

TV/Radio: CBS Sports Network/KMJ (AM 580)