NORTHRIDGE, Calif. >> For the second consecutive game, Hawaii squandered double-digit leads in both halves Saturday — including a 23-point advantage late in the first half. But this time, late heroics eluded the Rainbow Warriors.

Cal State Northridge took UH to overtime, where the Matadors earned an 88-80 victory in Big West Conference play at the Matadome.

“It’s a tough one, obviously,” UH coach Eran Ganot said. “We’ve been in so many close games, but it’s the consistent theme of you can see the flashes of what we can be, but also some really bad stretches that bite us in the end.”

The ’Bows (8-8, 6-8 Big West) played without Justin Webster, who missed his first game of the season because of undisclosed medical problems, said a team spokesman. Webster, UH’s second-leading scorer as the game began, is considered day-to-day, the spokesman added.

Casdon Jardine led UH with 22 points and nine rebounds. Biwali Bayles and Noel Coleman each added 15 points, with Bayles passing for a career-best six assists. But UH’s early supremacy in shooting and rebounding evaporated.

Despite Webster’s absence, “for the most part our guys were ready to roll and took on the challenge to start the game and start the second half, but we came up short,” Ganot said. ”Hopefully we’ll learn from it and get healthier and we’ll go from there.”

The ’Bows made 11 of their first 16 shots, then missed 36 of their next 53. After dominating Northridge on the glass, 16-5, in the first 12 minutes, 33 seconds, UH secured only 25 more rebounds the rest of the game — while the Matadors grabbed 41.

“Our rebounding has not been there in the last three weeks,” Ganot said. “We were moving in a place where our defense was really solid, our rebounding was really solid. Now we’ve lost both and we’ve got to get it back moving forward.”

UH turned its early success in shooting and rebounding into a 37-14 lead with 6:23 left in the first half. Jardine led the spree with 16 points, and made two free throws to give the ’Bows that 23-point advantage.

But those free throws would be the visitors’ only points for six minutes.

The Matadors (8-9, 4-6) responded with a 14-0 blitz that narrowed their deficit to 37-28. UH center Mate Colina’s inside jumper with 55.7 seconds left ended that six-minute stretch without a basket. But Darius Brown II made two baskets in the final 40 seconds — including a fadeaway jumper at the halftime buzzer — to draw the hosts within 39-32.

Then 53 seconds into the second half, Northridge’s Brendan Harrick made a 3-point basket to narrow UH’s lead to 39-35. But Bayles generated every point during a 6-0 spurt that put the visitors ahead 45-35. UH would extend the margin to 63-48 with 11:19 to play.

But the Matadors’ T.J. Starks, the conference’s leading scorer, ignited a 21-8 surge in the final 11 minutes that forced a 75-75 tie after regulation. Starks — who missed six of his nine shots in the first half in scoring just six points — amassed 15 points during that span. Brown’s driving lay-in tied the score with 15.4 seconds left.

Amound Anderson gave Northridge its first lead 30 seconds into overtime with a 3-point shot. Jardine’s lay-in drew UH within 78-77 with 3:51 left — but the ’Bows missed their next five shots and failed to grab an offensive rebound after each one.

Starks scored the Matadors’ next seven points, as the hosts built an 88-77 lead with 17.9 seconds to play.

“We struggled against the zone late. Just weren’t aggressive … and weren’t getting inside the teeth of the zone like we had in the first half,” Ganot said. “The combination of that and the way they were rolling on the offensive end leads to the feeling we have now.”

Starks finished with 28 points one day after scoring a career-high 31. Brown contributed 18 points, 10 assists, five steals and a career-high 16 rebounds in his first career triple-double. Anderson and Alex Merkviladze scored 16 points apiece.

“(Brown) just fills the stat sheet. He shoots high percentages, he doesn’t turn the ball over. He’s just a really complete player at the most important position,” Ganot said.