SAN JOSE, Calif. — University of Hawai'i defensive tackle Tuika Tufaga had seen it all before.

So, too, had quarterback Shane Austin.

Inspired by UH's clutch 2007 overtime victory over San Jose State on the road to the Sugar Bowl — one of the classics in school history — the present-day Warriors reprised a good bit of it in remarkable detail and tense drama for last night's 17-10 overtime triumph over the Spartans.

Anyone for "We Believe II, the Next Crusade?"

For somewhat like the '07 team these Warriors, now 5-6 and needing to win out to reach their dream of a postseason at the Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl, nearly cost themselves against an underdog Spartan team before rallying behind a defensive stand and winning in OT.

Again head coach Dick Tomey's team was denied a statement-making upset and the Warriors left with a rousing confidence-builder.

This time it was a Sheraton Hawai'i Bowl berth that seemed ready to slip through the Warriors' chilled-to-the-bone fingers in the 40-degree cold of Spartan Stadium, not a Bowl Championship Series berth.

This time the Hawai'i Bowl people watched from home instead of a BCS scout in the stands and it was an island audience not a national ESPN following. But in the end — and what a finish it was — these players summoned some of the can-do resilience of their predecessors.

"I watched that one from home," recalled Tufaga, then a redshirt. "Before we went out there (in the fourth quarter)," a teammate told him, "this time it is our turn. Remember how we watched it in '07?" Tufaga said.

Remember it?

How could the Warriors — even those among them who weren't from Hawai'i — forget it? Head coach Greg McMackin had shown the last few minutes of it to the team this past week.

"Maybe I got them thinking about it too much 'cause it came down to the end like that one," McMackin joked.

In '07 linebacker Blaze Soares forced Spartan running back James T. Caller to fumble with 2 minutes, 56 seconds left to open the door for the touchdown that allowed UH to tie the game and eventually win in OT, 42-35.

This time Tufaga wrapped up running back Lamon Muldrow, separating him from the ball, with Soares on hand. Jeramy Bryant recovered at the UH 39 with 47 seconds left in a fourth quarter to preserve a 10-10 tie.

Then, Austin, who made his first start on an 11th-hour decision in place of Bryant Moniz (on the sideline with bruised ribs), took the Warriors to the end zone in OT, the last five yards on a pitch to running back Leon Wright-Jackson.

The Warriors needed every big play and ounce of good fortune to hold on in what should have been a one-sided game early. "It should have been like 44-0," Tufaga said, exaggerating slightly.

The Spartans turned the ball over four times — three in the first half — but all UH could muster from it was one touchdown because of its own turnovers and a missed 31-yard field goal.

In the end, "You could see it in everybody's eyes that we were going to go down and score," Austin said. "There was no denying us."

Tufaga, too, felt the confidence. "We dug deep, just like the boys did back then (in '07)," he said. "We believed."

Yes, they did and if they manage to win out, maybe, someday, someone will use the '09 team as inspiration, too.