Bedeviled by Cal State Northridge’s quickness early, Hawaii relied on its strength inside to open a new era for the program with a 74-71 win Saturday night before a Stan Sheriff Center crowd of about 4,500.

In a roller-coaster opener to UH’s membership in the Big West Conference, the Rainbow Warriors fell behind early, made a huge push to take a double-digit halftime lead, gave it away in the second half, then held on in the final seconds.

UH (7-5, 1-0 Big West) outscored the Matadors (9-4, 1-0) 45-30 in the paint to overcome a 16-for-31 performance from the free-throw line and survived when CSUN’s 3-pointer at the buzzer fell short.

"It’s a big win, that was the hottest team in the Big West," UH head coach Gib Arnold said. "They were quick and they are athletic and they are well-coached."

UH forward Christian Standhardinger epitomized the undulating nature of the game. The junior missed his first eight free throws before making one to bring UH to within a point with 4:37 left. He later added a reverse layup and a putback in the see-saw final moments and finished with a team-high 17 points on 8-for-11 shooting from the field.

Freshman Isaac Fotu helped close out the win late with strong moves in the post and finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds while center Vander Joaquim contributed 12 points and 11 boards.

"We feel like our bigs, your going to have to double team, you’re going to have to foul," Arnold said. "Now if we were knocking down free throws maybe it’s not as exciting a game at the end. We know what our strengths are, our strengths are inside, and our strength is rebounding and our strength is halfcourt defense.

"You’ve been seeing glimpses of it, but I see it every day in practice," Arnold said of Fotu. "I think he’s special. … The last five, six, seven, eight plays, we called his number every single time and that kid delivered."

Brandon Jawato, another freshman, sparked the Rainbows with 12 points off the bench, hitting three 3-pointers.

CSUN sophomore swingman Stephan Hicks led all scorers with 25 points to match his season high and guard Josh Green finished with 13.

Cal State Northridge’s quickness in the backcourt gave the Rainbows fits in the early moments as the Matadors raced to a 13-2 lead. UH committed 10 turnovers with a little more than 10 minutes gone in the game and trailed 25-17.

"We’ve got to be able to play against pressure quickness, it’s been ourAchilles heel," Arnold said.

The Rainbows turned it over just once more in the first half and turned the game around by outscoring the Matadors 25-3 over a span of about five minutes as the Rainbows took a 44-33 lead into halftime.

UH got off to another ragged start out of the locker room and Cal State Northridge caught and passed the Rainbows to take a 56-54 lead with 11:49 left.

UH went nearly five minutes without a score, going 0-for-5 from the field and 0-for-4 from the free-throw line, but Cal State Northridge didn’t fare much better and inched ahead to a 61-56 lead on a jumper by Hicks at the 5:33 mark.

Standhardinger alternately frustrated then thrilled the crowd by missing his fifth straight free throw before sinking the next. He finished UH’s next possession with a reverse layup to give UH a 64-63 lead.

The Rainbows then went inside to Fotu late to maintain a slim advantage.

"When Coach calls my number, I’m always ready," Fotu said. "He saw we had an advantage inside and I think we wanted to do that until they stopped it."

CSUN closed to 72-71 on a putback by Stephen Maxwell with 15.7 seconds left. Hauns Brereton, who subbed in for Standhardinger, was fouled and drained two free throws to push the lead to three as the Rainbows held on..