LAS VEGAS >> Lane closures led to a dead end to the University of Hawaii women’s basketball season.

Despite a gritty comeback effort, an inability to find points in the lane and consistency from the perimeter doomed the Rainbow Wahine to a 64-52 loss to UC Davis in Friday’s semifinal of the Big West tournament. The top-seeded Aggies advance into today’s championship game. The Wahine are pau at 9-8.

“Today’s game didn’t go the way we wanted it to go,” UH coach Laura Beeman said. “They hit shots, we didn’t. That really is what it came down to.”

The Wahine, who trailed by 14 points early in the fourth quarter, made a frenetic comeback. Seniors Jadynn Alexander and Amy Atwell buried consecutive 3s to close the Wahine to 56-50 with 1:49 to play. When Atwell made two free throws, the deficit was at 56-52 with 1:04 remaining.

“No matter what, we’re always fighting to the last buzzer,” said Atwell, who finished with a game-high 17 points. “We knew we had one more push in us. Going down 12 or 14 or whatever, it was the last quarter. We looked at each other. ‘This is our time. We have to go now. It’s now or never.’”

But the Wahine misfired on their final four shots, all launched behind the arc, while the Aggies hit eight free throws in a row to pull away.

For the third game between the teams in eight days, the Aggies wanted to protect the low post while forcing Alexander away from the middle of the lane.

“They’re a team that sets a lot of screens,” UCD coach Jennifer Gross said. “They drive in a lot. In the last couple games, their plan was to really drive at us.

“So we talked about clogging the lanes and just try to play team defense against their ball screens and against their drives.”

The Wahine hit 23.1% of their shots, and were 7-for-25 on layups. They converted on eight of 36 3-point shots.

“We missed a couple wide-open layups at really crucial times,” Beeman said, “and we missed a couple wide-open 3s we have to hit in these situations. I think the execution was there. I think the effort was there. There was a little frustration that shots weren’t falling. But, yeah, when the lights are bright, you have to be able to hit shots.”

Gross said: “The plan wasn’t to give up so many 3s, but it was to contest 3s and make them tough shots, and just make sure we were rebounding as well. I thought we did a pretty good job with that.”

Alexander hit three of 12 shots. Daejah Phillilps, voted as the league’s top reserve, was 1-for-10. Point guard Kelsie Imai shot 1-for-8.

The Wahine grabbed 17 offensive rebounds, but managed only 13 second-chance points. They scored on 31.8% of their 66 possessions. The Aggies, who had no second-chance points, scored on 47.5% of their possessions.

UCD forward Cierra Hall, who was named the league’s player of the year on Monday, was held scoreless in the first half. But after the intermission, Hall, who is 6 feet, posted up shorter UH defenders for power layups. When UH rotated a second defender, Hall would pitch to the perimeter shooters. Hall hit four of five shots in the second half, amassed five assists, and drew four fouls. Sage Stobbart, a 6-3 post, scored 14 points, suctioned 11 rebounds, blocked three shots and made three steals. The Aggies were at plus-16 points when Stobbart was on the court.

Gross said Stobbart is a “tremendous rim protector, but she’s quick enough to handle ball-handlers coming off screens. She allows us to switch. She allows us to play different styles of ball screens defensively. And she rebounds well.”

After the game, Beeman spoke of the Wahine’s perseverance during the pandemic-impacted season. Beeman said the players worked hard, and embraced not “letting the uncontrollable things get under their skin.”

Beeman added: “Coming to work has been incredibly fun because we get to coach X’s and O’s, and not attitude and effort. That’s something that is a coach’s dream.”