FULLERTON, Calif. >> To Eran Ganot, the 2017-18 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors felt like a postseason team.

Just one with no postseason.

UH, despite receiving an invitation from the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament, elected to officially end its season at 17-13 on Friday, a day after the sixth-seeded ’Bows lost 68-67 to third-seeded UC Irvine in the Big West tournament first round.

“This team has put itself in position where it’s a postseason team,” Ganot said at the team hotel Friday. “It doesn’t mean we’re not if it didn’t work out in this case. (The players) clearly are and they did a heck of a job to get us back to that kind of situation.”

It ended on a loss that will sting well into the offseason.

The ’Bows shuffled off the Honda Center floor in disbelief, as they controlled most of the game against their conference nemesis but were unable to hold on to a 10-point lead with four minutes left. Once forward Gibson Johnson put the Rainbows up for the last time on a three-point play with 14.1 seconds remaining, the fatal blow came on Anteater guard Max Hazzard’s one-dribble pull-up jumper with 5.5 on the clock. UH guard Brocke Stepteau was off on a contested close-range shot at the buzzer and the meltdown was complete.

Ganot and athletic director David Matlin jointly came to the decision by noon Friday not to extend the season through a lower-tier tournament.

Unlike the NCAA and NIT tournaments — which are well out of reach for a team with an RPI of 211 — the CIT and CBI are pay-to-play events that cost schools money each time they host a game.

Hawaii participated in the CIT in 2011 and 2013. Host teams pay a fee of roughly $40,000 per round (and sometimes more for the visiting team’s travel expenses) then try to make the money back through ticket sales; UH hosted all three of its games in its previous appearances. Jim Donovan, who was UH athletic director when he agreed to partake in the 2011 CIT, is now the AD at Cal State Fullerton and the chairman of the CIT selection committee. That chair position was formerly held by ex-UH coach Riley Wallace.

UH, which went 8-8 in Big West play, had a standing offer from the CIT.

“For this year, we decided to pass on the opportunity,” Matlin said.

Besides the up-front cost concern, the team’s well-being was a factor. Cumulative late-season injuries led to worries about depth. Stepteau (finger), Mike Thomas (undisclosed), Drew Buggs (wrist) and Leland Green (shoulder) had injuries in the final weeks of the conference season, though they all played in the Big West tournament.

Ganot said he spoke to his seniors (Johnson, Thomas and Zach Buscher) and with administration before agreeing not to play.

“Look, we always talk about student-athlete welfare, and the current health-state of your team. I couldn’t be prouder of our guys, but also because what they were playing through,” Ganot said. “They gave everything they had and they’re still doing treatment every day.

“You still have to factor the travel, the missed class time. The variable is your health of your team at that time. Right now it’s not an ideal position, clearly, which tells you why I’m even more proud of our guys. They’re pretty good about fighting through those things.”

UH players flew home Friday while most of the coaching staff remained on the mainland to recruit for the 2018-19 season.