Hawaii pounded the paint on Cal Poly and punched its way into the top three in the Big West Conference.

Noah Allen continued his scoring surge to match the Rainbow Warriors’ late-season tear with a 74-65 victory on Thursday at the Stan Sheriff Center, the team’s season-best fourth in a row.

UH (12-11, 6-4 BWC) turned to the interior — it dominated the paint battle 46-10 — and pulled away late in front of a crowd of 3,765. Only UC Davis (7-2) and Saturday’s opponent at the Sheriff, UC Irvine (7-3), stand between the ’Bows and an improbable stab at first place. UH, tied for third with Cal State Northridge, was picked to finish eighth in the preseason.

“Really proud of our guys to fight their way back to be in this position,” said UH coach Eran Ganot, whose team started 0-2 in conference. “We knew (this game) was going to be tough. All these games are battles. I really appreciate the way we have continued to evolve offensively.”

UH shot 50.9 percent from the field and held Cal Poly (7-17, 2-8) to 39.1 percent.

Allen maintained his recent scoring binge with 21 points on 7-for-14 shooting — his sixth 20-point performance in the past eight games — to go with nine rebounds. Forward Gibson Johnson added 15 points on 7-for-10 shooting, Jack Purchase scored 11 going 4-for-5 and center Ido Flaisher contributed 10 points and six rebounds off the bench.

Flaisher’s post play was key in a 10-0 run shortly after Cal Poly made up a seven-point halftime deficit on three 3s by Victor Joseph and Jakub Niziol to tie it at 40. Five of the freshman’s boards were on the offensive end.

His contributions included an impressive left-handed ball fake into a right-handed hook shot.

“Just kept doing what you know,” the Israeli said. “Going to the offensive rebound and my shots didn’t go in the first half, but my teammates found me.”

“Ido Flaisher gave a huge lift off the bench in the second half,” Ganot said. “Imposed his will and really set the tone. … He made big plays in a big game as a freshman.”

Hawaii missed shooting guard Leland Green due to a stomach virus for the second straight game. Sheriff Drammeh started in his stead and recorded nine points and four assists.

Most of the night, UH didn’t seem to miss a beat.

“Just experience,” Allen said. “We’re getting used to playing together. We’ve been through every situation possible.”

Cal Poly, the best team in the Big West at taking care of the ball, committed a season-high 16 turnovers. UH gave it away just three times in the first half and 10 for the game, tying a season low.

“We had six or seven turnovers that were completely out of character and unacceptable by the way that we play,” Mustangs coach Joe Callero said. “They’re not a team that pressures fullcourt. … I thought our decision-making tonight was really poor.”

Point guard Ridge Shipley led the Mustangs with 19 points, but on 3-for-12 shooting from the field (he was 11-for-15 at the line). Guard Victor Joseph entered with four straight 20-point games but was held to 13 with four turnovers.

Cal Poly is the most prolific 3-point shooting team in the conference, but could not do enough damage from long range. It shot 8-for-21 from deep (6-for-11 in the second half).

“We knew they had a bunch of shooters,” Allen said. “We did a good job of running them off the line.”

Kyle Toth hit a deep 3 for Poly to get the deficit to eight with 8:09 to play, but Flaisher came back with a strong putback in traffic to make it 60-50. When Donovan Fields scored on a drive with 5:27 to go, Allen extended it back to double digits at the free-throw line.

Purchase got an easy putback of a front-end miss of Allen’s 1-and-1 free throw to extend the lead to 70-57. Johnson got a wide-open layup on a feed from Matt Owies the next time down with 1:53 to play and UH was in control from there.

“Except for (Cal Poly’s) isolations late in the first half and the three 3s early in the second, we were nails defensively,” Ganot said.

At tipoff, the Mustangs was the only team in the conference UH hadn’t seen. The teams rematch in San Luis Obispo on Feb. 18 with UH having won four straight in the series.