IRVINE, Calif. >> The most successful aspect of Hawaii’s play during the past four weeks saved the Rainbow Warriors from their sixth successive loss Thursday night.

UH made 17 of 20 free throws in the second half to repel host UC Irvine and earn a 62-61 victory in Big West Conference play in front of 1,424 at Irvine’s Bren Events Center.

Mike Thomas converted eight of 10 foul shots in that half, including four in the final 1:29 to secure the win. For the game, the ’Bows (14-10, 5-6 BWC) made 20 of 24 free throws after shooting 81 percent from the foul line in their previous six games.

“One of the things I’m proud of is our evolution as a free-throw shooting team,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “Our guys really struggled at the line early in the year, but this has been coming on all conference.”

The ’Bows needed superb foul shooting to overcome an offensive collapse in the second half. UH made only one basket in the final 17:39 — and none in the final 7:28. They shot 3-for-24 in the half after making 16 of 30 before halftime.

“To their credit, they made it an ugly game when we were playing pretty good basketball,” UH forward Gibson Johnson said of the Anteaters (13-15, 8-4). “Really, they turned it into a scrum. You could see in the second half it was aggressive — lots of fouls, lots of free-throw shots, not a whole lot of clean looks at the basket.”

But the ’Bows relied on the determination they generated since Saturday night’s home loss to Cal State Northridge to survive. They also lost to last-place UC Riverside at the Stan Sheriff Center last week.

“After a five-game losing streak, you’d expect it to be pretty down and quite depressing, honestly,” Johnson said about the atmosphere among his teammates. “But our team focused this last week and the preparation for this game was 100 percent. Everybody bought in.

“We knew we had to turn this thing around. We weren’t going to give up just because we lost some games. We talked about having fight, and we showed it tonight.”

That determination impressed Ganot.

“Their attitude and approach was very professional, very mature,” he said. “We always have a chance because we’ve got a good group of guys. We’ve got a special locker room and they really amped it up this last week.”

Johnson scored all 13 of his points in the first half, as the visitors built a 32-22 lead with 4:57 before halftime. But with UH’s offense misfiring, Irvine moved ahead 56-55 on a turnaround jumper from John Edgar Jr. with 5:05 to play.

The Anteaters rallied despite the absence of 6-foot-10 center Jonathan Galloway, last season’s defensive player of the year in the Big West. Galloway received his fourth foul 4:29 into the second half — and sat for the next nine minutes.

But the ’Bows then held the hosts without a basket for the next 4:30 and used a 7-3 spurt — with all the points on both sides coming from free throws — to take a 62-59 lead on Thomas’s two foul shots with 43.2 seconds to play.

Irvine’s Tommy Rutherford responded with a lay-in that narrowed the margin to one point with 35.7 left. UH then worked for the last shot with a five-second differential between the shot clock and the game clock.

But Sheriff Drammeh’s 3-point attempt hit the back of the rim with seven seconds remaining. The Anteaters’ Eyassu Worku secured the rebound and passed to Max Hazzard in the frontcourt. When Hazzard called a timeout with time apparently expired, the officials reset the game clock to four-tenths of a second.

Justin Wertner, making his first appearance for the Anteaters and defended by Samuta Avea, inbounded the ball to Worku, whose 3-point shot from about 35 feet fell far short of the rim.

“When teams give up a lead like that,” Johnson said about UH’s 10-point advantage, “you can choose to go away or you can choose to step up and finish the game strong.”

Johnson and Drammeh each scored 13 points, with Thomas adding 10 points and seven rebounds. Rutherford finished with 13 points, nine rebounds and two blocks.

UH completes its two-game road trip at UC Riverside on Saturday.