Southern Miss lived up to its reputation for misses. Hawaii had its own prestige to protect on Christmas Day.

UH salvaged a win in its first appearance in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic seventh-place game, defeating the offensively challenged Golden Eagles of Conference USA 60-46. It was the Rainbow Warriors’ fourth straight win on Christmas and sixth in the event’s eight years.

The ’Bows (5-7) snapped a four-game losing streak with one contest left — Thursday vs. Delaware State — prior to Big West Conference play.

“That was big for us,” said forward Jack Purchase, who scored a game-high 17 points in front of a morning Stan Sheriff Center crowd of 1,109. “That was probably our biggest game of the year.”

It was a defensive battle between struggling programs that recently felt the wrath of the NCAA. USM (3-9) is coming off back-to-back years of self-imposed postseason bans plus reduced scholarships because of academic fraud under a former coach.

UH also is down scholarships and talent and must serve a postseason suspension in March unless the NCAA overturns its decision to ban the ’Bows, which it announced during last year’s Diamond Head Classic.

The Rainbows lost by double digits in each game of their losing streak, and looked especially lost in a 26-point rout at the hands of Illinois State to start the tournament Thursday.

“Really happy for our guys. That’s the bottom line,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “We’ve obviously been struggling, going through some things.

“(This time) I thought we were ready from the get-go.”

UH went with a three-guard starting lineup for the first time this season, aligning Brocke Stepteau, Sheriff Drammeh and Leland Green together while bringing wing Noah Allen off the bench. It was the same group that played effectively down the stretch in a 14-point loss to Utah on Friday.

“I think we’ve grown a lot from the first game (of the tournament) to the game we played today,” Green said. “It was a quick turnaround, so we had to put the game behind us and focus on the next game.”

Green shot 2-for-9 but his 11 rebounds matched the season high for any UH player and was seven more than the freshman’s previous best.

“I was able to crash the glass more,” the 6-foot-2 Green said of the new lineup. “I think that was more helpful.”

Allen seemed engaged, if a bit up and down in his 21 reserve minutes, with five points, six rebounds and four assists against four turnovers.

Meanwhile, Southern Miss emphasized the second part of its name in shooting 32.7 percent en route to its eighth straight loss. Season top scorer Quinton Campbell missed his first eight shots before finally getting on the board with under five minutes to play.

“It is frustrating, but the fact of the matter is we have a lot of work to do to score points,” coach Doc Sadler said. “Defensively, (holding UH to) 36 percent you can’t do much better. We have to find something we can do offensively before we find success.”

Forward Eddie Davis led the Eagles with 10 points. His 3-pointer in the second half ended a six-minute scoring drought, but by then USM was out of the game at 48-32. It was shooting 25 percent with 12 minutes to play, threatening the lowest field-goal percentage record (25.5) UH set against Illinois State.

UH hit six of its first 10 3-pointers for a rare hot start and significant early lead — 27-18 after a 10-1 run — and led by 10 at the break. Bucking recent history, the ’Bows started the second half well, too, as Gibson Johnson (10 points) made two free throws then scored inside on a shimmy move.

They turned to its defense to close it out.

“We shot 36 percent and won the game today,” Ganot said. “So you’re going to have to find other ways to get it done.”

Purchase closed out the tournament scoring 30 points in the last two games. In the three games before Utah, he was 3-for-18 from the field. He shot 5-for-10 on 3s Sunday.

Utah 74, Stephen F. Austin 66

Behind an 8-for-8 performance from forward David Collette, the Runnin’ Utes (9-3) shook off the 7:30 a.m. tipoff time to claim fifth place over the Lumberjacks (5-7).

Collette had 17 points while JoJo Zamora and Devon Daniels added 16 apiece.

Utah of the Pac-12 went 2-1 in the tournament after going 0-3 in its previous appearance in 2010, when it was an outgoing member of the Mountain West.

Illinois State 68, Tulsa 56

Four starters scored in double figures as the Redbirds (8-4) of the Missouri Valley Conference held off the Golden Hurricane (6-6) of the American Athletic Conference.

The third-place game was a rematch of a Dec. 7 game in Tulsa’s Reynolds Center won by the Hurricane 70-68. This time, point guard Paris Lee scored 18 points in the ISU victory.

Junior Etou scored a game-high 22 points on 13-for-14 free-throw shooting in the loss for Tulsa.