FULLERTON, Calif. (AP) Zach Johnson had a hunch his services would be needed one last time so the senior guard crashed the offensive backboard in the closing seconds for a dramatic put-back dunk that helped Miami advance to the championship game of the Wooden Legacy Tournament.
Johnson's emphatic putback with 0.2 seconds remaining off a Chris Lykes miss was the last of his game-high 24 points off the bench as Miami held off Fresno State 78-76 Friday night in a semifinal game of the tournament.
''I thought Chris had a great look,'' Johnson said. ''There was about six or eight seconds left and I knew that our best chance to win, if he missed it, was to get on the offensive board. I took off, the ball just bounced my way and I put it back in.''
The Hurricanes (5-0) will face the Seton Hall in Sunday's tournament championship game.
Lykes, a sophomore guard, added 17 points, avoided injury when he crashed head-first into a media table behind the Hurricanes' basket late in the game. Dejan Vasiljevic added 12 for the Hurricanes.
Lykes and Vasiljevic have scored in double figures in every game for Miami this season.
Braxton Huggins scored 28 points for Fresno State (2-2), while Deshon Taylor added 25.
Huggins' 20 first-half points were tied for second-most in a half in the tournament's history. But he was watching from the bench when Johnson threw down his game-winning dunk, having fouled out late in the game.
''That possession wasn't the one that made us lose the game,'' Huggins said about Johnson's heroics. ''Throughout the game we had silly turnovers, we had pick-and-roll issues and our defense wasn't that good. We have to get back and work on that, watch some film.''
Fresno State lost despite a 43-29 rebounding advantage. The Bulldogs also turned the ball over 20 times to Miami's 11.
For the second consecutive game in the tournament, Fresno State relied heavily on its bench. The Bulldogs got 74 of their 76 points from their starters after getting 69 of their 78 points from the starters in Thursday's victory over Northwestern.
The Bulldogs will face Hawaii in Sunday's third-place game.
24 to earn the victory. Barefield scored 18 of his 26 points in the second half, hitting three of his four 3-pointers after halftime.