"If you get the ball in a good place in a comfortable situation, you have to have that confidence to go up and shoot the ball, and that's what I did tonight," said Nash, a 6-foot-6 junior.

Nash is Hawai'i's starting small forward, but he played power forward for most of last night's game to match the small and quick Demons.

"My dad's a real big rebounder, and everybody says that I'm a little big guy," Nash said. "So I went down there and grabbed boards. Anything to help the team."

Nash's father, Bob Nash, is Hawai'i's associate coach, and owner of many of UH's rebounding records.

"We're back to old-time Rainbow Warrior basketball, where we got after them, build a big lead, then start slow in the second half," Wallace said. "That's kind of the way we used to be. I prefer that way (rather) than starting slow and using all your energy catching up."

Hawai'i never trailed in the game, and had leads as big as 20 points in the first half, and 23 in the second half.

"That was an emphasis coming out of the locker room — we're 4-0 when leading at halftime and 0-4 when we don't," Wallace said.

The 'Bows used a 14-0 run early in the game to take a 23-5 lead. Nash highlighted the surge with two 3-pointers in a 20-second span.

"Bobby was really hot early and feeling it, and he's a streak shooter," Wallace said. "And then Lojeski joined in a little bit."

Hawai'i increased the lead to 33-13 with 5:48 remaining in the first half. At that stage of the game, the Demons made just 3 of 23 field goals (13 percent).

"I think we created our own problems early on," Northwestern State assistant coach Mark Slessinger said. "We couldn't make a shot in the first half. We were 6 for (30), and that dug us in a hole as much as any call or no call."

The 'Bows took a 36-23 lead at intermission, with Nash scoring 16 of Hawai'i's points.

The Demons got back in it briefly with a 14-6 run to open the second half. After its dismal first half, Northwestern State went 6 of 7 from the field in the first four minutes of the second half to cut the Hawai'i lead to 42-37.

"Coach told us to find some energy," Lojeski said. "We realized they were a couple of points from taking the lead ... it seems like we feed our game off defense, and we made stops and got some steals."

Lojeski scored eight points and had a blocked shot and a steal during a 15-0 run that put the 'Bows back ahead by a comfortable margin, 57-37. The Demons never got within single-digits of the lead after that.

Northwestern State head coach Mike McConathy was not around for the final 11:50 of the game. He was assessed two technical fouls in the second half for arguing calls with the referees.

After receiving his second technical, McConathy was ejected from the game and told by the referees to leave the bench.

"I didn't understand the dynamics of what happened," Slessinger said. "But it really rallied the kids because they wanted to do well for him. It was more of a rallying point than a concern."

The Demons cut a 23-point deficit down to 10 late in the second half, but Hawai'i sealed the win by converting 9 of 12 free throws in the final three minutes.

Northwestern State was called for 26 fouls to Hawai'i's 24.

The 'Bows went 31 of 46 on free throws, while the Demons were 28 of 35. "You look at the free throws, it's pretty balanced," Wallace said.

Northwestern State also played without two key players: 6-9 forward Trey Gilder and 6-7 forward Jermaine Spencer. Gilder leads the team in scoring at 14.2 points per game, but he was not in uniform because of a fractured left hand. Spencer is a starter who averages 8.0 points and 3.8 rebounds per game, but he did not play because of a heel injury.

"It's a shame they didn't have (Gilder) in there because the game probably would have been closer early on," Wallace said.

Slessinger said the absence of Gilder and Spencer affected the Demons from the start.

"I think our guys were focusing too much on the guys who were out hurt and that probably cause a slow start more than anything else," Slessinger said.

The Demons normally like to use a rotation of 12 players in games, but the starters had to play most of the minutes yesterday.

Up next for Hawai'i is the 43rd annual Outrigger Hotels Rainbow Classic. The 'Bows will host San Francisco on Wednesday, which is the opening night of the four-day tournament.

Reach Dayton Morinaga at dmorinaga@honoluluadvertiser.com.