Hawaii’s offense took the spotlight in Saturday night’s 35-28 comeback victory, but the defense made it all possible.

The Warriors’ defensive unit limited the Rebels to seven second-half points, holding the visitors without points on seven of eight second-half possessions.

Twice in that span, UH sophomore linebacker Penei Pavihi stopped UNLV runners cold on critical fourth-and-1 situations.

The second time, Pavihi drilled Rebels running back Lexington Thomas and pushed him back 20 yards. Officially, it was only a loss of 2, but in the grand scheme of things, it turned the tide. That’s when Hawaii got the ball back and backup quarterback Chevan Cordeiro threw to JoJo Ward for the tying touchdown with 4:23 left.

Pavihi, who finished with a team-high 13 tackles, wasn’t done with his man-of-the-hour duty. On UNLV’s next possession, he sacked quarterback Armani Rogers for a 3-yard loss on a third-down play. The Rebels punted, leading to the Cordeiro-to-John Ursua 68-yard touchdown pass that was the lethal blow.

“He did a great job in the bye week playing real physical,” Warriors defensive coordinator Corey Batoon said about Pavihi. “And he really showed up for us tonight. I’m very proud of him and his effort. He’s an even-keeled kid. He’s young. This is the first time being kind of a full-time starter. He kind of had to fill the void when Jahlani (Tavai) went down, so he’s playing a lot more snaps than he might have expected. Boy, he really grew up tonight.”

Batoon was happy with the whole defensive unit.

“I thought we were able to knock out the run and we controlled the quarterback in the second half,” he said. “The kids played their tails off and I’m just so proud of their effort.”

UNLV’s Williams rushed for 129 yards, but only 28 of those came in the second half.

“Everybody did their job,” Pavihi said. “On that (second) fourth-and-1, I owe the credit to the D-line basically — Manley Williams smashing the puller, which allowed the running back to bounce outside to me. It’s a team effort. On the sack, again everybody did their job. Mine was to spy on the quarterback.”

Pavihi recalls head coach Nick Rolovich’s talking points before the game and what the coaches said at halftime, when UH trailed 21-6.

“At the pregame meal, Rolo told us to play fast, physical and together and play for the person next to us,” he said. “Yeah, we had our ups and downs, but it was a matter of getting back up and that’s what our team did and we came back and won the game. It was a rough first half and the coaches told us on the defense to just tackle.”