The Hawaii men’s basketball team shook off a nightmare of a second half to edge UC Riverside 56-55 and snap its four-game losing streak today in Riverside, Calif.

UH (15-10, 6-5 Big West) shot just 20 percent in the second half, and squandered a 17-point lead, but rallied from six points down late and survived a final possession with two shots by the Highlanders (14-14, 4-8), who lost their fifth straight.

The winning points came from sophomore center Dawson Carper, who stuck a putback of a Zigmars Raimo miss with 31.1 seconds left.

Riverside called time out with 24.6 seconds left and worked the ball inside to big man Angus McWilliam with a few seconds left. He missed badly off the glass, and UCR’s Dominick Pickett grabbed the offensive rebound just before the buzzer, but his attempt was well off the mark.

Thus, the Rainbow Warriors narrowly avoided matching the longest losing streak in coach Eran Ganot’s five-year tenure. UH survived despite giving up a 24-2 run coming out of intermission.

Freshman guard Justin Webster came off the bench to pour in a career-high 18 points, but all in the first half. He was 6-for-8 in the first half and 0-for-5 in the second.

UH next plays at Long Beach State on Saturday.