‘Bows edged out at the end

A near-perfect effort was required if Hawaii was to add No. 3 Oklahoma to its list of holiday victims.

But it was the staggered Sooners who clung to the ropes and remained perfect by edging the host Rainbow Warriors 84-81 in the Hawaiian Airlines Diamond Head Classic semifinals on Wednesday at the Stan Sheriff Center.

UH (8-2) fought valiantly and had its chances in the final minutes, but the go-ahead basket or trip to the line proved elusive in its first home loss of the season. The Rainbows fell to 0-3 in semifinal games in their nationally televised Christmas tournament, while OU of the Big 12 improved to 10-0 and will face Harvard for the tournament title Friday.

“We look back and there’s missed free throws, missed block-outs, missed loose balls,” said forward Stefan Jankovic, who scored 17. “You know, all the little things. You look back over the course of the game, and when the game is this close, you have to make those little plays, especially against the No. 3-ranked team.”

Point guard Roderick Bobbitt had a career night of 32 points, six assists and three steals in going toe-to-toe with OU’s All-America candidate guard Buddy Hield, who scored 27. Bobbitt had a halfcourt heave to tie it up at the buzzer, but his attempt was off the backboard to the left.

“It was a good learning experience,” Bobbitt said. “Nine games in, we played the No. 3-ranked team in the country … to the buzzer. That means a lot for me, just to see my teammates fighting to the end.”

UH, still smarting from sanctions laid out by the NCAA on Tuesday, staged a remarkable rally from down 16 points in the opening minutes.

Coach Eran Ganot called the Sooners’ opening salvo — which included a 4-for-4 spree of 3s by Hield for a 25-9 lead — “a haymaker.”

But UH got off the mat with an 18-1 run, nearly led at halftime, and stayed on its feet until the final buzzer.

Ganot credited OU and veteran coach Lon Kruger for making the requisite plays to win.

“It hurts. The locker room is hurting,” Ganot said afterward. “I’d be more worried if it wasn’t, because these guys care. But we do have to move forward.”

The Rainbows will try to regroup for the third-place game against Auburn (6-4) of the SEC at 1:30 p.m. on Christmas Day.

Like in last year’s DHC semis against No. 11 Wichita State, a potential statement win was right there, and the raucous weekday afternoon crowd of 4,828 seemed to sense it. OU was the highest-ranked team UH faced since it beat No. 2 Kansas in the 1997 Rainbow Classic.

After its seven-minute-plus drought of field goals near the start of the game, UH made some headway by putting its head down and getting to the line. That seemed to open up outside shots, which in turn allowed Jankovic to drive baseline for a jam and UH’s first lead at 27-26. Only a step-back jumper by Isaiah Cousins at the halftime buzzer kept the Sooners up at the break, 41-40.

Eighty-one was the most points allowed this season by OU, which had an average margin of victory of 23.9 points going in.

“I thought Hawaii did a terrific job,” Kruger said. “Eran has always done a good job. He’s a smart guy and he had his team ready. The crowd was fantastic.

“They made their run and then it was nip-and-tuck the rest of the way. I thought guys on both teams played really hard and it’s a game that could have gone obviously either way.”

The box score revealed some remarkably similar statistics: matching 24-for-33 shooting on free throws, and nearly identical efforts in shooting from the field and in rebounding.

UH turned it over only 10 times, but there were some costly lapses; guard Isaac Fleming hit a big second-half 3, then got assessed a technical for chatting with OU players afterward.

The teams swapped the lead 12 times, but UH never led by more than a point. Fleming tied it up for the last time at 75 on a slicing layup with 4:25 to play.

Aaron Valdes, UH’s leading scorer at more than 18 points per game, scored a season-low three on 1-for-6 shooting. He did, however, spike a drive by OU’s Jordan Woodard with four minutes to go, and UH had five field-goal tries from there to go ahead — all off the mark. The last, a clean-look, top-arc 3 by Sai Tummala, was short.

Hield converted two free throws and the ’Bows were playing catch-up from there.

Bobbitt threw his team on his back late, hitting a 3 to cut it to 81-79 with 13.3 seconds left and drawing a foul on another trey attempt down four with four seconds to go.

The point guard made the first two and was just off on the third, unintentionally. UH took a quick foul on OU big man Khadeem Lattin (17 points), who converted the first of two at the line for the final margin.

The Rainbows lost some time for a final shot when they didn’t cleanly field the uncontested rebound of Lattin’s miss, which trickled out of bounds. UH had to inbound with 1.2 seconds left. The 6-foot-11 Jankovic, the inbounder, looked downcourt but didn’t see a clean pass and fed it to Bobbitt.

“I’m proud of them in victory, I’m proud of them in defeat,” Ganot said. “It’s all about the effort. We played hard.”

Co-captain Quincy Smith went down in pain trying to take a foul in the final seconds.

“I know Quincy’s pretty tough. He’s going to do everything he can to bounce back,” Ganot said.

Harvard 69, Auburn 51

The Crimson clamped down on yet another foe to punch their ticket into the Diamond Head Classic title game.

A superbly balanced attack yielded five scorers in double figures for youthful Harvard (5-6) of the Ivy League, the only team in the field with a losing record.

“Balance is always a key for us, a word we use a lot in our program,” Tommy Amaker said. “Balance on the court and balance in our lives.”

Evan Cummins led the Crimson with 13 points on 5-for-6 shooting with five assists and five rebounds.

At the other end, Amaker’s group has made a habit of holding opponents under 40 percent shooting. Wednesday was a defensive clinic as the Tigers (6-4) of the SEC shot just 30.2 percent from the floor.

BYU 96, New Mexico 66

Chase Fischer has an affinity for island hoops.

The senior guard scorched the Stan Sheriff Center nets to the tune of 41 points — tying Cal State Fullerton’s Josh Akognon for the building record — in carrying the Cougars (8-4) of the West Coast Conference to a rout of the Lobos (7-5) of the Mountain West in the consolation semifinals.

Fischer shot 12-for-21 from the field, including 9-for-14 on 3-pointers, and 8-for-9 at the line. His points and 3s made were Diamond Head Classic records. UH’s Dwain Williams had the previous best in points with 36 in 2009.

Fischer, a senior, also shares the Maui Invitational 3-point record of 10, which he matched last year.

Northern Iowa 63, Washington State 59

Despite a subpar night in some respects, the Panthers (8-4) of the Missouri Valley eked their way to the fifth-place game with a win over the Cougars (7-4) of the Pac-12.