One moment epitomized why Hawaii held on to defeat Central Michigan 65-62 and take the 47th Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic at the Stan Sheriff Center early yesterday morning.

Freshman forward Trevor Wiseman, one of the toughest Rainbow Warriors, was summoned off the bench late in the game by Hawaii coach Gib Arnold. The situation: 5.9 seconds left, Chippewas ball under their own basket, UH up 64-62.

Wiseman hadn’t played since the 14:22 mark in the second half and only 7 minutes total. No matter. He hounded the Chippewas’ star freshman guard, Trey Zeigler with dogged determination and forced a poor inbounds pass by CMU point guard Derek Jackson.

The ball sailed out of bounds and back to UH, which gained an insurance point on a Joston Thomas free throw. On CMU’s last-gasp possession to tie, the 6-foot-7, 210-pound Wiseman again kept the ball out of Zeigler’s hands, forcing Jackson to take the ball upcourt and launch the desperation halfcourt heave. It deflected off the right side of the backboard.

Arnold’s reasoning to play Wiseman there: a physical player was needed to deal with a physical team.

"It’s kind of his role and he’s accepted that," Arnold said. "We just told him, ‘Don’t let him touch it. He doesn’t touch the ball.’ … Someone else had to beat us."

Thus, Hawaii held on to "win ugly," in Arnold’s words, and improved to 3-0 on the season.

"Trev’s one of our best defenders," said UH senior forward Bill Amis, who led the team with 17 points and eight rebounds and was named to the all-tournament team. "He guards me every day in practice. Pushes me really hard. I knew whenever we put him on (the inbounds man), he was going to be able to get a stop."

A rowdy "Blackout" crowd of 2,965 (6,054 tickets issued) was on hand for the exciting finish to a late-night, ESPN-televised game that was part of the College Hoops Tip-Off Marathon. The game, which finished at 1:18 a.m. yesterday, featured seven ties and 11 lead changes.

Tournament MVP Hiram Thompson had 15 points for UH before fouling out in the final minute, while Thomas added 14 and Zane Johnson 13. Freshman Bo Barnes, also named to the all-tourney team, was held to two points after going for 19 in each of the first two games of the tournament.

"They were an outstanding defensive team, and got in us," Arnold said. "We weren’t able to get open on the wings, so we weren’t able to get as many 3s or as many fast-break points as we wanted to. They tried to slow it down, so we just had to keep grinding away. We’re lucky we made some big free throws down the end, had some big plays at the end, rebounded really well."

UH converted 15 of 20 at the stripe in the second half. Meanwhile, CMU (1-2) lived at the line in the first half, but had only four attempts there after halftime.

The Rainbows went almost exclusively to a zone defense by the end, something out of character but still effective; CMU shot 38.2 percent compared to 53.8 percent for UH.

Center Douglas Kurtz provided 24 key minutes, offering a rebuttal to the physical style of the visitors from the Mid-American Conference.