With a pivotal fourth down looming, the option was Shane Austin’s top choice.

"I told (the coaches) I love that play," the Hawaii quarterback said.

As he had in a critical situation two years ago, Austin executed the call by drawing the defense to him and absorbing a hard hit as he pitched the ball to the running back.

Joey Iosefa’s 1-yard touchdown run off the option play punctuated a 10-play, 71-yard fourth-quarter drive that gave UH some much-needed breathing room in a 35-23 win over Tulane at Aloha Stadium on Saturday.

"Since I couldn’t get it in, I pushed it to Joey and Joey got it in," said Austin, who was stopped on a quarterback sneak one play earlier.

Austin entered the game at the end of the third quarter in relief of starter David Graves and his first play resulted in a UH fumble and a safety. Tulane then took the free kick and scored a touchdown to close to within five points.

The Warriors responded with a drive in which Austin completed four of five passes for 48 yards and capped it by helping Iosefa get into the end zone on fourth and goal from the 1.

The play was reminiscent of the decisive score in UH’s win at San Jose State in 2009, when Austin ran the option with Leon Wright-Jackson scoring on a 5-yard run in overtime.

"(Before the drive) we talked about it, that all of our games have come down to an inch," Austin said. "And we decided this game wasn’t going to be an inch, we were going to control this game and be in control of this outcome. When it comes down to an inch it can go either way, we didn’t want to give it a shadow of a doubt."

In a role reversal over the previous week, Austin finished the game after Graves gave the Warriors a lead in his first career start.

Graves completed 21 of 38 passes with two touchdowns and two interceptions. He also created some plays with his scrambling ability and scored on a 15-yard quarterback draw in the first quarter. Graves said he took a hard hit in the third quarter and the coaches summoned Austin, who started the previous game against Fresno State, to get the Warriors to the finish.

"We just started to get stale a little bit, so we wanted to change it up," UH offensive coordinator Nick Rolovich said. "We talked about it that maybe it would be time, just a new spark.

"Shane’s such a special person, never took any negativity about the situation with Dave starting. I think he just deserves a lot of respect and love from his teammates and the fans can appreciate his story and approach."

Austin responded by going 9-for-10 for 98 yards the rest of the way in helping the Warriors keep their postseason hopes alive entering the regular-season finale against BYU.

"I want to go to the bowl game," said Austin, part of UH’s senior class. "I’m 0-3 in bowl games, that’s one thing I haven’t really accomplished yet at Hawaii — winning a bowl game is at the top of our list. But we have to focus on this next game, we have to get to the bowl game first. … Now that this game’s over, we can focus on BYU."