A tense contest between the Big West’s two premier women’s basketball programs of the last decade fittingly came down to a final possession in the conference tournament semifinals at the Dollar Loan Center in Henderson, Nev., on Friday.

UC Davis, playing for the third time in three days, overcame fatigue and had the better endgame execution in a 51-48 upset of top-seeded and two-time defending champion Hawaii.

UH (20-10), playing for the first time in nearly a week thanks to its double bye into the semifinals, had its seven-game winning streak snapped and suffered its first loss at the Dollar Loan Center in its three years as the tournament site.

The regular-season champion Rainbow Wahine are assured a berth in the inaugural edition of the 32-team Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament. Big West Coach of the Year Laura Beeman said her team would spend the day to be sad and reflect, then "recalibrate" to go for the first postseason tournament victory of her 12-year tenure.

"We have a very young team. We have everybody coming back but two. We need this postseason experience," Beeman said in the Big West postgame press conference. "This is not the tournament we want to be in, but this team has to recalibrate. They don’t have a choice.

"One game will not define this group."

Fifth-seeded Davis got the go-ahead 3-pointer from star Evanne Turner and Mazatlan Harris sank two free throws for a three-point cushion with 6.6 seconds left. The Aggies will face the winner of No. 2 UC Irvine and No. 7 Long Beach State on Saturday.

"I can't even say how many people we had step up when we needed them," Davis coach Jennifer Gross told the ESPN Plus broadcast team. "That's what this whole tournament has been about, a different person each day. (Harris) is not always in that situation late when she was on the line, but she was huge today."

Beeman credited Gross and her staff.

"To play three games in a row the way they did, they hit big shots when they needed to, they hit free throws when they needed to and got stops when they needed to," she said. "We picked a bad day to have a bad day."

UH struggled to generate offense in the first half and came up wanting in big moments down the stretch. Its two floor leaders were either ineffective or unavailable: All-Big West first-team guard Daejah Phillips went out with an ankle injury in the third quarter and second-team point guard Lily Wahinekapu, who made a layup to begin the game, missed her next 13 shots, as well as a pair of free throws when UH trailed by a point with under 11 seconds left.

Mazatlan Harris made two at the line for Davis with 6.6 seconds left and Jacque David’s desperation 25-footer to tie at the buzzer was partially blocked.

UH rallied out of a 13-point second-half hole to briefly recapture the lead.

Davis (20-13), the dominant team in the Big West prior to UH’s run over the last three years, got hot from long range and went on a 26-6 run bridging the halves.

"We weathered the runs and played great team defense today," Gross said. "Hawaii is a tremendous program. We have a ton of respect for them and they have amazing players. We thought we needed a little bit of a cushion. We gave ourselves that but we knew they were going to come back."

The Aggies finally started to run out of steam at the end of the third quarter.

A game after UH scored a season-high 85 points in a win at Cal State Bakersfield, the Wahine were still in the 20s well into the third period before they got their offense untracked.

MeiLani McBee hit a 3 and Jacque David converted a three-point play to launch an 8-0 run that got the Wahine within five late in the period once Phillips exited.

"We knew we had to fight back for her because she’s one of our leading scorers and without her, and without everyone we can’t win a ballgame," McBee said. "We did our best to fight back."

Ashley Thoms hit a free throw, Kelsie Imai got an open-court steal and Thoms hit a left-wing 3 at the third-quarter buzzer to get UH within 39-36.

UH kept the run going to begin the fourth with a McBee layup and two free throws by Imai to recapture the lead.

Davis countered and Turner hit a corner 3 in front of her team’s bench for a 46-42 Aggies lead with three minutes left.

David hit a left-wing 3 and UCD missed an open layup. Imani Perez was fouled on a putback attempt and split a pair of foul shots to knot the game at 46.

Wahinekapu was fouled 40 feet from the basket and she converted both for a two-point lead with 1:17 to play.

Turner hit a 3 off the dribble with under a minute left and Wahinekapu missed a left-handed layup. McBee grabbed the offensive board and UH called timeout with 29.2 seconds left.

Wahinekapu had the ball poked away by Tova Sabel in the high post and UCD called for time with 20.9 to go.

"We know that defense wins championships. It's great. We need to dig in," Sabel told ESPN Plus. "They're such a great team with amazing players. It's such a hard matchup."

UH took a foul, then forced a five-second inbounds violation with 15.9 seconds left.

Wahinekapu barreled to the rim and drew a foul on Sabel. But she missed both free throws with under 11 seconds left.

UH had to take three more fouls to send Davis to the line. Harris was sent to the line with 6.6 seconds left and she converted both for a three-point lead.

UH was out of timeouts and could not advance the ball. David’s desperation 25-footer at the buzzer was partially blocked and the Aggies celebrated their first women’s basketball title game appearance since 2021, when UCD last won it all.

UH remained in control in the first half until Phillips picked up her second foul and took a seat. UH allowed four 3s in the last 3:11 of the half as UCD went into the break on a 13-2 run. A David pull-up 3 was waved off as the red backboard light was on while the ball was still on her fingertips.

Sabel led UCD with 14 points. McBee shot 5-for-7 for 12 points and David added 11 points and six rebounds for UH.

"Davis brought it today. They came out fighting," David said. "They really wanted it more than we did today. It’s going to hurt, but we’ve got to get back, recalibrate, because we have another tournament, more games."

Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.