Winless the last two weeks, the Hawaii men’s basketball team was on the cusp of a fifth straight defeat Thursday night. This one would come via a second-half meltdown, it appeared.

But just in time, UH shook off a nightmarish stretch of play to edge UC Riverside 56-55 and end its four-game slide in Riverside, Calif.

UH (15-10, 6-5 Big West), which rode the hot hand of freshman guard Justin Webster to seeming glory in the first half, shot just 20 percent — 4-for-20 — and committed nine turnovers in the second. The Rainbow Warriors squandered their 17-point lead at SRC Arena, then fell behind by six, but the ’Bows rallied late and survived a final possession by the Highlanders (14-14, 4-8), who lost their fifth straight.

“We had good composure down the stretch,” coach Eran Ganot said in a postgame phone interview. “We’ve had some crazy games this year, but you could argue maybe in the same game we played the best we’ve played, and maybe the worst we’ve played.”

Carper had been outplayed by his Highlanders counterpart, burly 7-foot-1 Callum McRae (16 points, nine rebounds), for stretches. But UH’s 7-footer came up with a timely rejection of a McRae lefty hook shot late, and was in the right place to clean up Raimo’s miss on a fast break. He finished with eight points and six rebounds.

“We’re taught to go to the O-boards. I just happened to crash there, and be at the right spot at the right time,” Carper said. “Put it back in. Nothing super special there, it could’ve been any possession honestly, but it happened to be that one.”

Riverside called timeout with 24.6 seconds left and worked the ball inside to their other big man, Angus McWilliam, on the right block with a few seconds left. He missed badly off the glass over the outstretched arms of Raimo. UCR’s Dominick Pickett grabbed the offensive rebound on the other side just before the buzzer, but his follow attempt was off the mark and after the horn.

UH avoided matching the longest losing streak in Ganot’s five-year tenure. It survived despite giving up a 24-2 run coming out of intermission.

“It could feel like another game going away from us,” Ganot said. “So the magnitude not just of the way the game was going, and the four games prior — it was something that we could build off of.”

Up next is Long Beach State at the Walter Pyramid on Saturday. The Beach edged UH 50-49 at the Stan Sheriff Center last week.

Webster came off the bench in this one to pour in a career-high 18 points, all in the first half.

UH unsuccessfully tried to force-feed Carper on its first few possessions and fell behind 10-2, but used a 20-2 run, energized by Webster and Samuta Avea, to go up double digits.

Webster sank all four 3-point attempts in the first 20 minutes; the last of those was followed by a run-out layup by Eddie Stansberry (12 points) that gave UH a 37-23 lead at halftime.

Stansberry’s 3 to open the second half made it a 17-point game, but then the Highlanders intensified their defense. They scored 13 straight to get within four with 14 minutes left.

Webster was 6-for-8 in the first half and 0-for-5 in the second.

“Webster was incredible, and they weren’t really going to let him get a shot off,” Ganot said. “That’s fine, he spreads the floor for us. But we just did not handle (well), they picked up the pressure, they denied the wings, denied the entries. Fullcourt pressure on our point guard (Drew Buggs). … We just weren’t making good decisions.”

McRae put in consecutive post baskets to tie it up at 42. Khy Kabellis hit a 3 to put the Highlanders ahead and the hosts went on to go up six with 7:34 to go.

Buggs’ runner with 6:36 left was UH’s first basket in more than 13 minutes.

Two minutes later, Stansberry was fouled on a 3 and hit all three free throws to get UH within 49-48. The senior guard hit two more at the line to keep UH within a point with 2:49 remaining.

McRae’s tipped putback staked UCR to a 55-52 lead at the 1:46 mark. Buggs narrowed it to one again at the line with 1:02 to go, setting up the wild finish.

“I’m proud that at the biggest time of the game, we were able to settle down and get back to what we do,” Ganot said.