SPOKANE — Hawaii sure won’t forget this first.

Jumping on top early, and weathering repeated comebacks by Cal, the 13th-seeded Rainbow Warriors notched their first NCAA tournament victory in school history Friday, dispatching the fourth-seeded and shorthanded Bears 77-66 in a first-round game before a pro-Hawaii crowd at Spokane Arena.

“What a moment,” first-year Hawaii coach Eran Ganot said. “In an era of moments, what a way to provide some more. I know there are a lot of people in Hawaii going nuts right now.”

Guards Quincy Smith and Roderick Bobbitt scored 19 and 17 points, respectively, and forward Stefan Jankovic added 16 for Hawaii (28-5), which overcame foul trouble to earn a second-round matchup with No. 4 Maryland (26-8) at 4:15 p.m. on Sunday at the Arena.

“It was fun to watch them play,” a complimentary Cal coach Cuonzo Martin said. “Congrats to those guys.”

Hawaii had lost in each of its previous four NCAA tourney appearances, most recently in 2002, when the Rainbow Warriors fell to Xavier.

It’s 2,882 miles from Honolulu to Spokane, but Hawaii’s fans made Friday’s game seem like a home game for their road-weary Rainbow Warriors.

A good-sized crowd in the Hawaii cheering section roared and stomped their feet in approval, and that energy fed to most of the rest of the crowd. Meanwhile, little noise came out of the Cal rooting section.

“Hawaii fans, they travel well; it was great they had a lot of energy,” said Smith, the point guard who hit 6 of 8 from the field and 7 of 8 from the line. “They would get chants going, call our name, get us pumped up.”

The loss capped a forgettable week for Cal (23-11). First, an assistant coach was fired on Monday for sexual harassment of a female reporter. On Wednesday, starting point guard Tyrone Wallace suffered a broken hand in practice. And just before the game on Friday, Martin learned that junior guard Jabari Bird would not be able to go because of back spasms.

Martin said he heard Bird felt stiff at the shoot around on Thursday, but tried to shrug off all the distractions.

“It’s no big deal; you lace ’em up and play the game,” said Martin, who starred at Purdue in the 1980s.

Throw in the talk that Cal’s two star freshmen, forwards Jaylen Brown and Ivan Rabb, could leave after this year for the NBA draft. Brown fouled out in 17 minutes and finished with four points on 1-of-6 shooting. Rabb totaled 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Hawaii led by as much as seven in the first half, and took a 36-30 lead at intermission. The Bears pulled within 47-46 with 11:56 to play on a three-point play by Kameron Rooks, son of former Arizona star Sean Rooks.

But the Rainbow Warriors, as recently as 2012 a foe of Idaho in the WAC, had an answer for each run, usually by Smith.

“They had a good game plan — pressuring us, and getting us out of our rhythm,” said Cal junior Sam Singer, who replaced Wallace in the starting lineup at point guard.

Smith said “we had heard a little bit on ESPN” about Cal’s issues.

“We wanted to be aggressive early, and set the standard from the start,” he said.

Junior guard Jordan Mathews led Cal with 23.

The Hawaii players were asked about being another double-digit seed to bust most people’s brackets. At the point of Hawaii’s win on Friday, two 12 seeds had beaten 5 seeds, two 11 seeds (including Gonzaga) had beaten 6 seeds, and a 15 (Middle Tennessee State) beat a 2 (Michigan State) for just the eighth time in 126 tries.

“I think Obama’s bracket is still intact,” Jankovic said.

“In my bracket, I had us winning,” Smith said, with a touch of youthful innocence.