RUSTON, La. — With all of its wildest football dreams at stake — an unbeaten season, a conference title and a Bowl Championship Series berth — Hawai'i overcame a game-long series of deficits and self-inflicted problems to will a 45-44 overtime victory over Louisiana Tech last night.

Dan Kelly tied it with a 49-yard field goal with 1:34 left in regulation, and the 20th-ranked Warriors sealed it in extra play on Jason Rivers' 6-yard scoring pass from Colt Brennan and, later, cornerback Gerard Lewis' deflection to deny the Bulldogs' go-for-broke, two-point conversion attempt.

"We had so much to lose," said Brennan, who completed 43 of 61 passes for 548 yards and five touchdowns, "but we refused to lose. That's what I love about this team. Every guy in this locker room thought we were going to win."

A half-hour after the game, with the celebration still strong and the coaches raising Bud Lights, head coach June Jones was fighting his emotions.

"These guys have so much character," Jones said. "I wouldn't want to win it any other way. We won it on the road and by coming from behind. It's a big statement, and it says a lot about each of the players. I am so proud of them. They had that attitude they were not going to lose the game."

Circle the calendar. Last night, defensive coordinator Greg McMackin declared, "we were born under fire."

Indeed, the Warriors appeared ready to melt in the muggy conditions and against a Louisiana Tech team that was rebuilt and rejuvenated by Derek Dooley, son of legendary Georgia coach Vince Dooley.

They fell behind 14-0, and had difficulty solving the two-part riddle of quarterback Zac Champion, a champion on bootlegs and play-action passes, and running back Patrick Jackson, who zigged every time the Warriors defense zagged.

For every accomplishment — sophomore Leon Wright-Jackson broke away on a 47-yard scoring run and Rivers, Davone Bess and Ryan Grice-Mullins each had triple-digit receiving yards — the Warriors matched it with errors in judgment and execution.

Wright-Jackson fumbled an exchange from Brennan. While trying to abort a pass attempt, Brennan lost his grip on the football. Kelly was wide left on one field-goal attempt and a second one was blocked as time expired in the half. And Bulldog defensive end Quin Harris had Brennan on auto track. Harris had a sack and batted down four Brennan passes.

"Hat's off to Louisiana Tech," Brennan said. "I can't take anything away from them. They had a great game plan. They executed really well. They took advantage of both the offense and defense. The offense made some real stupid mistakes, and put the defense in a bad position a couple of times."

With 5:51 left in the regulation, Marqui McBeath intercepted Brennan, racing to the UH 31. Three plays later, tight end Dennis Morris, aligned in the backfield as a running back, sprinted 21 yards, fumbled and appeared to recover the ball in the end zone. After a video review, Morris was ruled to have been downed inside the 1. On the next play, Morris left no doubts, bullying his way to give the Bulldogs a 38-35 lead with 2:50 to play.

"Every time things were bad, I'd look up at the clock, and thought, 'We've got time,' " Brennan recalled. "As long as we had time, I knew we'd be all right."

The Warriors drove to the Bulldogs' 32. Jones summoned Kelly for the 49-yard attempt on fourth-and-19.

"I have faith in Dan," Jones said. "He's had his moments when he's not on. But when the money's on the line, he's made them the past two years. When he has to come through, he does."

Kelly said: "If you asked me what my stomach felt like on the sidelines, it was in knots. But as soon as I step on the field, I don't think of those things. It's a blank. I didn't feel any more pressure than when I kick an extra point."

Kelly's kick was true, tying it at 38 with 1:34 left in regulation.

Before the overtime, the Bulldogs won the coin toss, electing to play defense first, seemingly putting the pressure on the Warriors' offense. What's more, left tackle Keith AhSoon was on the ground, writhing in pain from humidity-induced cramps. Aaron Kia, who had never played in a game with Brennan, replaced AhSoon.

Still, Brennan thought, "if we score first, the pressure is on them,"

In overtime, each team starts a possession 25 yards from the goal line. On first down, Brennan threw 19 yards to Grice-Mullins at the end of a post pattern.

"They thought they could come up and play man (coverage)," Grice-Mullins said. "If we're the No. 1 offense in the nation, we have to make plays against man coverage. That's what we did."

Brennan said: "Ryan made such a good move, we were going to knock it in. We weren't going to wait around for second, third or fourth down. We were going to run a play we knew we could score on."

Most of the game, when the Warriors were in crucial situations, Brennan would look to Rivers on slant patterns from the left side to the middle. With the corners angling toward the inside, Brennan called for a fade, in which Rivers breaks toward the corner of the end zone. Rivers caught the 6-yard scoring pass, and Kelly's PAT made it 45-38.

"Coach mixed it up on them," Rivers said.

But the Bulldogs answered, with Champion's 2-yard pass to Dustin Mitchell cutting the deficit to 45-44.

The Bulldogs offense then stayed on the field as Dooley, signaling from the sideline, called for the two-point conversion.

As the Bulldogs set up, Jones, pacing the UH sideline, asked for time.

"June was really smart," said McMackin, who noticed the Bulldogs had aligned a back on the right side. With the ball on the left hashmark, McMackin figured the Bulldogs would run a sprint-out play to the wide — right — side of the field. During the timeout, McMackin designed his counter attack.

"We call it the 'save-our-life play,' " outside linebacker Brad Kalilimoku said.

McMackin's strategy was to blitz Kalilimoku and safety Jacob Patek into the right side of the Bulldogs' backfield and, presumably, into the anticipated path of Champion. The scheme calls for a rotation, with Lewis defending the right wideout.

"I thought Mac was really trying to roll 7s," said Rich Miano, who coaches the UH defensive backs. "It was a big-time gutsy call for him to call what he called. We were rolling to that side. If they go the other way, we're not as strong."

Champion noticed the shift as the ball was snapped — a nanosecond too late to call a timeout.

"He panicked a little," Kalilimoku said of Champion.

As Champion rolled to his right, Kalilimoku and Patek sprinted into the backfield. Patek dived toward Champion's legs, hitting the left thigh pad as Champion lofted a pass toward 6-foot-3 Brian Jackson in the end zone. But Lewis, who is 5-8, cut in front of Jackson to knock down the pass.

"I could see G-Lew's eyes, and they were big," safety Keao Monteilh said. "I thought he was going to pick it and take it to the house. I was about to say, 'I'm not running after you. You do that by yourself.' He stepped up big time."

Lewis said it appeared the play was unfolding in slow motion.

"I had to do my job," Lewis said. "I had the flats, and he threw into the flats. I had to take care of business."

Pressed to make the decision of playing the receiver or the ball, Lewis said: "I had to go for the win. If we lost, there's no BCS, no WAC championship, no nothing. That's what we played for tonight: the WAC championship."

Indeed, since defeating Arizona State in last year's Hawai'i Bowl, the Warriors set a goal of winning the 2007 WAC title.

"After that bowl game, we yelled out, 'WAC champs,' " Grice-Mullins said.

It is a cheer the Warriors shouted at the end of every offseason workout.

"We yell it out for a reason," Grice-Mullins said. "We believe in it. It helped us tonight. We were losing. The crowd was rocking so loud we couldn't hear anything on the field. But we believed in each other, we made plays and we won. And we can still yell out 'WAC champs.' "

Reach Stephen Tsai at stsai@honoluluadvertiser.com.