Usually those final few seconds of a win where there’s almost no way the visitors come back are tantalizingly sweet. But when it’s an opponent that has figured out ways to beat you five times in a row, they’re agonizingly endless.

You couldn’t help but think the Mustangs of Cal Poly might somehow have an eight-point play in them before Hawaii’s Garrett Nevels hit those final free throws with less than 10 seconds left.

But, finally, it was a wrap, and UH salvaged a split of its four-game home stand, 69-60.

And on "Super Hero Night" it was Isaac Fotu who soared above all to save the day. Plus a couple of less-heralded Clark Kents coming off the bench and taking their turns as caped crusaders in Davis Rozitis and Aaron Valdes, with defense and rebounds.

Christian Standhardinger was content to play Robin to Fotu’s Batman.

"It was great, it was great," said the senior forward, who was great himself with 18 points and 12 rebounds. "I always tell you guys Fotu’s a heckuva player. … I like to be a sidekicker. When he’s going like that I will be on the other side trying to get some offensive rebounds."

As coach Gib Arnold said, this was UH at its best, at least in the frontcourt, doubling up the visitors on points in the paint and nearly on the boards, too.

It was Hawaii’s game plan, and although Arnold didn’t say so, some of it had to do with sketchy outside shooting of late — that didn’t improve much with 2-for-11 from 3-point land Saturday — but fortunately for Hawaii there was no Alan Williams defending the visitors’ rim and attacking UH’s this time like there was Thursday against UC Santa Barbara.

I’d had this feeling for about a month now that the Rainbow Warriors were lacking for depth up front, especially on the boards. But Rozitis and Valdes grabbed five rebounds each in a combined 24 minutes, and Rozitis’ spark on both ends of the court got UH going in the first half.

"Another good night for Davis," Arnold said, noting the 7-footer also performed well in the loss Thursday. "Our point press (with Rozitis at the top) was the best defense we had tonight. When he was out there for those 13 minutes we played our best defense of the night. He got tough rebounds in traffic. He and Aaron Valdes, on the bench all night he comes off the bench and gets some big rebounds."

Brandon Spearman displayed his usual grit. If you’re a fan of the blue-collar stuff that doesn’t show up on stat sheets, he turned in the play of the night, out-battling two Mustangs for a ball he had no business coming up with.

This was fairly early in the second half, right after Fotu had scored eight of UH’s first 10 points after intermission.

Fotu finished with 26 points, as the guards for the most part followed Arnold’s orders of "just pound it inside."

That was enough on this evening, and against an arch nemesis. As the Rainbow Warriors head back on the road they’re probably going to have to hit a few more shots from outside. 

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.