It started with a floor-burn, with big man Jack Purchase diving to finally secure the season’s first jump ball that pin-balled around for what seemed like forever.

The good news is they’re scrappy, they’re battlers. And they’re going to need to be, regardless of opponent.

At least that’s what it looks like after the University of Hawaii basketball team’s first two games, a close loss Friday and a close win Sunday.

Also, as their coach, Eran Ganot, often likes to describe it, they have to “play right.”

Fortunately, they played right in the right half Sunday — the second one, after a terrible first 20 minutes in which Hawaii mostly, played very wrong. When they weren’t turning the ball over, they were jacking up bad shots.

But the second half was a different story, one with a happy ending for — thanks to NCAA probation — Hawaii’s almost completely made-over team.

“For replacing 10 players, they have a nice team,” said Texas State coach Danny Kaspar, after his visiting Bobcats fell 74-68 to the Rainbow Warriors.

One of the major components of playing right is taking care of the basketball. Discounting Purchase’s hustle for the errant tip, UH mostly did not do that in the opening-night 69-68 loss to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (19 turnovers) or the first half Sunday (10).

By comparison, Hawaii dealt just 19 assists in the first three halves to the 29 turnovers. The 10-4 in Sunday’s second half was more to Ganot’s liking.

Both games went down to the final minutes. The Rainbow Classic doesn’t draw the big-name teams like it used to, but at least the games are exciting to the end.

“For a young group to be in two tight games, I hope that helps them moving forward,” Ganot said.

With just four turnovers after the break against the Bobcats, the Rainbows now have evidence of how important that is, how it was huge in climbing up the mountain after going down 10-0 and trailing 38-26 at the half.

Sheriff Drammeh has a long way to go before he can be considered a consistent Division I point guard. But he’s always exciting and his grit down the stretch was key to this win.

Drammeh did what was needed to seal the win by making free throws and taking care of the ball against Texas State’s press.

He even led Hawaii with eight rebounds.

The only holdover that saw significant playing time on last year’s team of 28 wins (the final one coming in the NCAA Tournament) appeared lost in his first three halves as UH’s starting point guard.

But something clicked for him, and the rest of the Rainbows, after Sunday’s first half.

“That’s a big breakthrough for us,” forward Gibson Johnson said of the comeback. “We didn’t play that well in the first game.”

And the loss that ended on a UH turnover on a possession that could’ve turned it into a win created a hangover.

“We weren’t moving the ball well (in Sunday’s) first half,” Purchase said.

Texas State scored 11 first-half points off of Hawaii turnovers and eight on second chances, which means UH was giving up too many offensive rebounds (six).

UCLA transfer Noah Allen is this squad’s most gifted athlete and in the early going its best stat-sheet stuff. He leads UH in scoring and steals, and is second in assists and rebounds. He’s just one of nine from 3-point land; if those start to drop, watch out.

Kaspar wasn’t really complaining when he acknowledged the difference in fouls (and foul shooting) impacted the game.

UH shot eight more times from the line than the Bobcats did — and made 12 more shots.

The Rainbows were fouled 14 times in the second half. Of course, a few of those were due to late-game desperation.

But Johnson said there were other factors.

“I felt like we more aggressive and the way we pass the ball around might have tired them out more,” he said. “You’re going to get calls if you stay aggressive. … We just stayed aggressive but doing it the right way in the second half.”

As Ganot reinforced at halftime, there can be no other way for the 2016-2017 Rainbow Warriors.