DAVIS, Calif. >> On the road against a first-place team, the Hawaii men’s basketball team played a terrific 35 minutes of basketball on Thursday night. The Rainbow Warriors were strong on defense, containing a UC Davis team that came into the night tied with UC Irvine in the Big West loss column.

As we all know, college basketball games are 40 minutes. A five-minute stretch late in the game did in Hawaii as the Aggies won 68-59.

What happened?

“It was a double-whammy,” Rainbow Warriors coach Eran Ganot said. “Second-chance points, we didn’t do a good job on the glass, and we didn’t do a good job on (Brynton) Lemar’s ball screens.”

Lemar scored 14 of his game-high 19 points in the second half. More important, six of them came on consecutive possessions — when he buried the 3-pointer that gave UC Davis the lead for good with 7:30 to go, then another 3-pointer after he stole the ball from Brocke Stepteau.

For good measure, Lemar capped a 1:13 possession for the Aggies with a dagger 3-pointer. Jack Purchase had hit a 3-pointer for Hawaii with 3:16 to go to cut the lead to 60-54. At the other end, Lawrence White missed a 3-pointer but Chima Moneke grabbed the rebound for UC Davis. Then, Lemar missed a 3 but J.T. Adenrele scooped up the board. Then, Lemar sank the battleship.

Lemar told coach Jim Les, “Hey, Coach, I’ve got you in the second half.” That he did.

Purchase led the Rainbow Warriors (14-14, 8-7 Big West) with 15 points and nine rebounds. Noah Allen had 13 points and Gibson Johnson added 12.

Hawaii fell behind 6-0 in the early going, but it was Purchase with a 3-pointer that got the Rainbow Warriors going.

“We didn’t get the best start that we wanted, but we worked our way back in the game,” Purchase said. “But I feel I let us down in that last five minutes when Zero (Lemar) went off for a few 3s in a row. That’s really what hurt us.”

Said Ganot, “Give them credit, that’s why they’re in the position they’re in. They made big plays down the stretch and their best player made big plays down the stretch. Hopefully it’s something we can learn from.”

The stat sheet didn’t show many glaring differences. Hawaii shot 44 percent (26 of 59) and Davis shot 46 percent (26 of 57). The Warriors grabbed 34 rebounds, 10 on offense; the Aggies pulled down 36 and 12.

But free throws were drastic. Hawaii took just one shot from the foul line all night. Ganot connected that to the fact his team attempted 27 3-pointers.

“That’s what happens when you settle too much,” he said.

It was senior night for UC Davis (19-11, 11-4), which went undefeated at home this year at 11-0. Late in the game, Adenrele bent down and kissed the floor at center court as he was replaced. After the game, there were lots of pictures for the Aggies. They play UC Irvine on Saturday for the conference title.

For the Warriors, it’s on to Long Beach State on Saturday in the regular-season finale. And then? Well, we still don’t know. Hawaii is awaiting a ruling from the NCAA on its appeal of sanctions imposed in 2015. A postseason ban is among the penalties, meaning the Rainbow Warriors could not participate in the Big West tournament. The conference is reportedly preparing two tournaments – one with Hawaii, one without.

UH can finish anywhere between a tie for third to a tie for fifth.

“I’m really proud of how our guys have evolved here in a very unique season,” Ganot said. “I feel like we have some more in us. I felt like that going into the game and our guys felt like that. But at the end of the day, there were critical mistakes made and good teams capitalize on them.”

Will they be ready if they get into the tournament?

“We’ve been through a lot of things, we better be ready,” Ganot said. “I think we’ve handled a lot of things very well, on and off the court, adverse situations and we have continued to stay together and stay united.”