HENDERSON, Nev.  — The University of Hawai'i men's basketball team's spirited comeback came up just short in the Rainbow Warriors'  68-65 loss to UC Davis in the semifinals of the Hercules Tires Big West Championship Friday night at the Dollar Loan Center.
 
Both halves followed similar storylines with hot-shooting UC Davis (20-12) breaking out to a 16-point lead in the first and opening up a 17-point cushion in the second. The Rainbow Warriors (20-14) surged back late both times and had possession in the final seconds of a one-point game. But their final shot danced on the rim before falling off and No. 2-seed UC Davis hung on to advance to Saturday's championship game against Long Beach State.
 
Bernardo da Silva led the third-seeded Rainbow Warriors with 14 points on 5-for-6 shooting from the field. Juan Munoz added 11 with three three-pointers and Justin McKoy finished with 10. Akira Jacobs gave UH a lift off the bench with eight points, including two three-pointers, and JoVon McClanahan scored six of his nine points in the final 3:33 to help fuel UH's final push. 
 
Big West Player of the Year Elijah Pepper powered UC Davis with a game-high 25 points on 10-for-23 shooting and scored the Aggies' final six points. That proved to be just enough to end UH's four-game winning streak in the 'Bows' second straight 20-win season and seventh straight winning season.
 
The Aggies got off to a torrid start to the game. They hit 10 of their first 13, including a run of five straight, and  stretched its lead to 22-6 at the 11:39 mark of the first half. Da Silva hit his first three shots to account for UH's made field goals in the first 10 minutes of play. The Aggies finally cooled off in a 1-for-8 stretch and the 'Bows closed to 24-14 on Tom Beattie's steal and layup with 6:52 left in the half. Beattie found McKoy down low for a layup and McKoy tipped in a miss to make it a 12-2 UH run.
 
The 'Bows continued to close the gap and trailed 27-24 when Munoz drained a three-pointer from the top with 3:17 left in the half in a  21-7 UH surge. UH punctuated the half with Munoz finding da Silva under the basket for a dunk just before the buzzer to send the 'Bows into halftime trailing 31-29 and with momentum.  After its hot start, UCD went just 3-of-15 the rest of the way for the half, while UH hit 10 of its final 17 attempts to get back in the game.  
 
The second half started in similar fashion to the first with UC Davis starting 7-for-9 from the field while UH went 0-for-6 and the Aggies stretched the lead to 46-31. UC Davis was on a 17-2 run before Ryan Rapp hit a three-pointer for UH's first field goal of the half at the 13:43 mark. The Aggies led 58-41 when Noel Coleman scored on a drive for his first points of the game and Jacobs drained a three-pointer to spark an 11-2 UH run. The 'Bows cut the deficit to 60-52 on da Silva's post jumper with 6:36 left.
 
UC Davis maintained the lead and UH chipped away from the free-throw line to close to 66-60 on two McClanahan free throws with 1:24 remaining and forced a turnover on the ensuing inbounds play. McKoy drew a foul and made two more fouls shots to bring UH back within four with 1:17 remaining.
 
The Aggies turned it over again on an inbounds but came up with a steal, then gave it back with a shot-clock violation. McClanahan capitalized by scoring a spinning drive in the lane while drawing a foul and his free throw made it a one-point game at 66-65 with 27.8 seconds left.
 
Coleman came up with a steal at midcourt to give UH another shot with time running down and McClanahan's pull-up jumper bounced off the rim. Pepper was fouled and hit two free throws with 1.8 seconds left and the Aggies hung on to advance to the final. 
 
UH shot 45.2 percent from the field to UC Davis' 44.1 percent and went 21 for 23 from the free-throw line, including 17 for 19 in the second half. But the Aggies, who never trailed in the game, had a 20-10 advantage in points off of turnovers.

UC Davis will next face fourth-seeded Long Beach State, which knocked off top-seeded UC Irvine in Friday's first semifinal.