MORE PHOTOS » UH vs Cal Poly

Hawaii has a new nemesis, and its name is Cal Poly.

The Mustangs spoiled the Rainbow Warriors’ senior night behind 25 points from Chris Eversley and survived a frantic finish to deal UH a 64-61 defeat on Saturday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

UH (17-12, 10-7 Big West) stormed back from a 13-point deficit with less than five minutes remaining and had two chances to tie the game in the final 15 seconds, but senior Hauns Brereton’s deep pull-up 3-pointer was off the mark and freshman Brandon Jawato did not get a shot off in time on UH’s last-gasp possession.

Cal Poly (15-12, 10-6) made it four straight wins over UH, including a 29-point blowout in San Luis Obispo on Jan. 24.

"Those two shots weren’t the reason why we lost," UH coach Gib Arnold said. "It’s a 40-minute game and I thought the guys did a phenomenal job of coming back. I thought it was a great comeback at the end. That’s the team we’ve seen all year, they never give up. We’re always in it to battle to the end."

Despite that resolve, UH slipped to fifth place going into Thursday’s regular-season finale at Cal State Northridge (13-17, 4-13).

Much of the "White Out" crowd of just less than 9,000, a season best, hung around to see senior captains Vander Joaquim, Brereton and Jace Tavita honored in traditional fashion after the heart-breaking loss.

It stung, as UH ended play at home on a sour note for the second straight year, despite committing a season-low three turnovers.

"The place was rocking. We just couldn’t finish it," Tavita said.

Joaquim had 15 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks in his final appearance at the Sheriff. Brereton added 13 points and Tavita had seven assists against one turnover.

"There was a time where I couldn’t hear anything. It was hard to even hear what you were thinking," said Brereton. "That’s the atmosphere you want to play in."

Freshman forward Isaac Fotu added 17 points and nine rebounds.

Eversley, though, was too good for too long a stretch. He finished shooting 11-for-18, many on deep 2-pointers.

Poly is on a serious roll, winning six of seven. It was a program-record 12-for-15 on 3-pointers in an 81-61 road win over CSUN two nights prior. The Mustangs already owned a win over UCLA at Pauley Pavilion this season, something coach Joe Callero looked back at in his team’s win in another hostile arena.

"We were commenting on what a great atmosphere it was," Callero said. "For us it was big because we played at some big venues this year — Washington, UCLA, up at Santa Clara. All those preseason games and all the close Big West games that we had really paid off for us this weekend."

A potential matchup problem bore out that way. The quick, perimeter-oriented Mustangs stuck to a zone defense for vast swaths of the game, challenging UH’s outside shooting, and became the second team after UC Davis to sweep the ‘Bows home-and-home this season.

The Mustangs sizzled in the second half, shooting 16-for-24 (66.7 percent). Despite giving up height, they outrebounded UH for the second time this season, 30-28.

"They hit every shot. They had some contested shots," Joaquim said. "We stayed and just competed, just played. … I’m not happy about the game, but I’m happy in general to be around for my senior night."

Joaquim said he hoped for another shot at Poly at the Big West tournament.

"I’m definitely looking forward, maybe we can play them again. We’ll come more prepared to play them."

After Brereton’s 3-point look to tie hit front iron, Cal Poly amazingly missed the front end twice on 1-and-1 free throws in the final 10 seconds — including the second by 6-foot-2 Reese Morgan, a 90 percent foul shooter, after he grabbed the rebound on Brian Bennett’s miss. It gave the ‘Bows an extra chance to tie while the crowd went berserk.

But UH couldn’t manage another hoop as the Mustangs fervently defended the perimeter on UH’s final chance.

Jawato dribbled around the arc from left to right and his desperation shot was late by about a second.

The ‘Bows briefly went ahead 36-35 on a basket by Brereton early in the second half, but Drake U’u came right back with a 3-point hit and the ‘Bows were playing chase the rest of the way.

Eversley threw down an alley-oop dunk in transition, then hit a corner 3-pointer and made a fast-break layup to push the Poly lead to 59-48, its biggest to that point.

The lead grew to 13 before the ‘Bows started chipping away.