A tough tournament got off to a difficult start for the Hawaii women’s basketball team.

The Rainbow Wahine staged a rally from 15 points down to get within two in the final seconds, only to fall 66-60 to North Texas on the opening night of the Heineken Showdown on Friday.

“We gotta play 40 minutes of basketball,” coach Laura Beeman said. “It’s not the first half or the second half. It’s a 40-minute basketball game.

“The first half we did not come out with effort or focus.”

>> Click here to see photos of the game between Hawaii and North Texas.

UH’s poor first two quarters — it trailed 38-28 at halftime — included an administrative technical foul for having the wrong number for freshman Makayla Edwards in the scorebook.

Forward Anisha George scored 21 points on 9-for-11 shooting and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Mean Green (3-3) of Conference USA, who went on to deal the Wahine (3-3) their second straight home loss heading into today’s 2:30 p.m. matchup against No. 12 North Carolina State (6-0).

The Wolfpack defeated Texas 84-73 in the first game of the day Friday.

“We’re just working on us,” said senior guard Julissa Tago, who scored a team-high 15 points on 4-for-14 shooting. “Whatever ranking they have, it is what it is. We’ve played teams that went to the final four (No. 7 Mississippi State in 2016-17) in the year we played them. So we just gotta come out with the mind-set that this is going to get us better, come March.”

Forward Amy Atwell scored 10 of her 13 points in the first quarter, sinking all four off her shots. The forward, who had an injury scare in the third quarter but returned in the fourth, did not score again until she stole the ball and got it back for a corner 3-pointer with 18.3 seconds left to get UH within 60-58.

But UNT’s N’yah Boyd sank four in a row at the line when UH went to fouling and Tago missed UH’s last-gasp 3 with a few seconds left.

It was a 15-point game with a layup by George with 3:09 to play in the second. UH freshman point guard Nae Nae Calhoun, who recorded season highs in points (eight) and assists (six), scooped in a layup to beat the halftime buzzer to make it 10.

Tago had a four-point play in the third quarter and was fouled on a 3 in the fourth, sinking all three.