Pick a play, any play.

Nearly all of them worked in a 31-point surge that crystalized into San Jose State’s 37-27 victory over Hawaii on Saturday night.

An Aloha Stadium crowd of 23,929 saw the Spartans end a three-game losing streak while keeping the Rainbow Warriors winless in five games, including three against Mountain West Conference opponents.

"In the Mountain West, there’s not a bad football team," UH defensive coordinator Thom Kaumeyer said. "But we did a great job of making them look like Alabama."

The Warriors soared to a 14-3 lead on receiver Chris Gant’s 9-yard run on a reverse and Vasquez Haynes’ 8-yard scoring pass from Sean Schroeder.

But on the ensuing possession, SJSU’s David Fales threw to Chandler Jones along the left sideline. Two Warriors went for the ball, but none for Jones, who made the catch, then scooted the rest of the way for a 61-yard touchdown.

After the Warriors’ next drive stalled, the Spartans wasted little time in reclaiming the lead. With the pressure coming from his left, Fales rolled to his right, signaled for his receivers to get open, then lofted a pass that Tyler Winston turned into a 40-yard gain, to the UH 35. On the next play, Fales threw a down-the-seam fastball to tight end Billy Freeman for a touchdown and 17-14 lead.

And so it went for the Spartans, who had the answer to this question: Pass? Answer: Fales.

Fales finished 16-for-35 for 318 yards and three touchdowns. Jarrod Lawson contributed a 39-yard perimeter run that didn’t end until he reached the end zone.

Austin Lopez, who converted the first 23 field-goal attempts of his college career, added three more — from 44, 51 and 37 yards.

"We were doing the little things, doing the basics, basically just executing," Fales said. "I definitely could have done some things better."

The Spartans were without injured receivers Noah Grigsby and Jabari Carr and running back Tyler Ervin. Running back Jason Simpson did not have any carries after being diagnosed as "banged up."

Those depletions did not slow Fales, who led the FBS in passing accuracy in 2012. Tim Crawley, Lawson, and Thomas Tucker helped the Spartans roll up 234 non-sack rushing yards.

To be sure, the Warriors had their chances. Schroeder was intercepted three times. Down 20-14 in the second quarter, running back Steven Lakalaka was stopped short on a fourth-and-1 run. The Spartans took over, then scored to extend their lead to 27-14 before the intermission.

"I thought we should have got it," UH coach Norm Chow said. "We needed a big push off the line of scrimmage. We didn’t get it. Maybe I should have called something else."

UH’s opening drive of the second half was abbreviated when Lakalaka lost a fumble near midfield.

"They hit me on my left shoulder, and I felt everything was gone," Lakalaka said. "I couldn’t feel anything. I saw the ball roll out, and I couldn’t do anything. My shoulder and back couldn’t move. That’s bad on my part. I have to (hold the ball) high and tight."

On UH’s next possession, Haynes appeared to break away after catching a pass. But he aggravated a sore shoulder on the play, was caught, and settled for a 35-yard gain. After that, Gant appeared to make a catch in the back of the end zone. The replay officials upheld the ruling that Gant did not have control and the incompletion was upheld.

"I thought it was a touchdown," Gant said. "Everybody else thought it was a touchdown."

For that drive, the Warriors came away empty, when Tyler Hadden missed a field-goal attempt from 27 yards.

"We can’t blow away opportunities," Chow said.

Chow managed to keep the starting quarterback’s identity a mystery until UH’s first snap. Schroeder and Ikaika Woolsey were on the field for that first play, with Woolsey at quarterback and Schroeder at receiver. After that, Schroeder took over the offense.

Schroeder was 28-for-50 for 342 yards and three touchdowns. But for the second week in a row, being good was not good enough to complete a comeback.

"The offense did a good job of moving the ball, but we can’t stop anybody," Kaumeyer said. "We’re going to have to change that mentality and go after people. It was a little disappointing. At halftime, we thought we made some adjustments. We played pretty good in the second half. But when you give up 27 points in the first half, it’s just a different game for our offense. … (The Spartans) were picking us apart. They were running. They were throwing. They did everything against what we wanted to do. It puts our offense in a tough position."

Because of the Spartans’ no-huddle, spread attack, the Warriors were mostly in nickel and dime coverages, with only three down linemen.

Kaumeyer said: "We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board. Maybe we put too much stuff in. Maybe we have to stay vanilla and make guys compete. Maybe some of the starters are too comfortable that we’re going to have make them uncomfortable. We have to change the whole scheme of giving up 30 points or more. We’re not going to win many games when we do that."