With a minute and 51 seconds left in the University of Hawai'i's basketball game last night, guard Bobby Nash briefly shared the same chicken-skin dream with most of us.

Imagine him hitting the game-winning shot to lift the Rainbow Warriors to a season-opening victory while sending his father, Bob, to a glorious debut as head coach.

"You think about it," Bobby admitted. "I was thinking about it in the huddle, I'm not gonna lie."

We all were.

But, unfortunately, that was all it would be — an unrealized fantasy — on a night when both a Rainbow Warrior victory and a Hollywood ending were usurped by the University of San Diego, 73-72.

A longtime assistant coach got the victory in his head coaching debut, all right, but it was USD's Bill Grier, not Nash. A young basketball team got a hard-earned, close win. But it was the Toreros, not the Rainbow Warriors.

It was not because the faithful, 4,623, on hand didn't implore UH with its collective energy.

It wasn't because the Warriors themselves didn't give it a ferocious run down the stretch, rallying back from what had been as much as a 14-point first-half deficit to make quite a game of it and very nearly pull one out until a foul sent Gyno Pomare to the free throw line with 2.2 seconds remaining to make the first of two free throws that would decide it.

And, it sure wasn't because young Nash spared the engines or the emotion in a 22-point, nine-rebound outing.

On a night when the 'Bows played without their most talented player, point guard Matt Gibson, who was on the bench in street clothes with a knee injury, they all tried mightily to pick up the slack.

And when the 'Bows came back to tie it at 51-all in the second half on Bobby Nash's 3-pointer, the hopeful crowd, sensing a shot at a special ending took up the chant of "Bobby ... Bobby ... Bobby ..." in what would be a 14-point second half for the 'Iolani School graduate.

After all, it was young Nash — "Big Shot Bob" in the media release — who had won big games with buzzer beaters in his career against Oral Roberts and Rice. The son of one of the most favored UH big-game performers.

Young Nash, now a senior and emerging emotional leader of this team, had earlier in the game taken a shot to the chin from his defender, Danny Brown, and still gotten off and made a 3-pointer. Bounding from the deck, Nash pumped his fists, lighting a momentary fire under the team and crowd.

It was a preview of what we hoped would be a storybook ending. One that never came.

"Maybe," young Nash said afterward, "reality teaches us a lesson how we can't take anything for granted and how nothing is given to us, even in our own house."

A lesson that should stay with the 'Bows in the challenging season ahead.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.