Hawai'i got neither as Fairfield escaped with a 67-65 victory in the opening round of the 12th annual Ala Moana Hotel Paradise Classic.

Hawai'i nearly rallied from a nine-point, second-half deficit, but missed two shots in the final 8.7 seconds.

Hawai'i will play Tennessee Tech at 5 p.m. today. Northern Iowa defeated Tennessee Tech, 76-73, in the opening game yesterday. Northern Iowa will play Fairfield at 3 p.m.

On the final play of the game, Hawai'i's Milia Macfarlane drove the length of the court and missed an off-balance leaning shot. Teammate Janevia Taylor rebounded but missed a short fadeaway jumper as time expired.

A crowd of 749 at the Stan Sheriff Center watched Fairfield improve to 3-5. Hawai'i lost its second consecutive game and fell to 2-6.

"Anytime you play Hawai'i, you're in for a battle," Fairfield coach Dianne Nolan said. "I have the upmost respect for coach (Vince) Goo. You know he's going to have his troops ready."

After the game, Hawai'i coach Vince Goo said he was disappointed about a referee's decision on the final play that directed Hawai'i to inbound the ball underneath the opponent's basket. Goo said the ball should have been inbounded on the sideline where his player called a timeout.

Goo said he drew up a particular sideline inbounds play and was shocked to see that the ball was being thrown in from the baseline. Hawai'i had no timeouts and had to call a hurried play, Goo said.

"We drew up a play that we wanted from the sideline, not from the baseline," Goo said. "We ran our press offense play from the baseline. That's not what we wanted."

Added Macfarlane: "We had to make do with what we had. The ref was handing us the ball, it wasn't like we could call another timeout."

Very little went right for Hawai'i in the second half. Hawaii squandered a 10-point, first-half lead and trailed Fairfield 66-57 with 3:15 remaining in the game.

But Hawai'i rallied with an 8-0 run — capped by Jade Abele's layup — to get within 66-65 with 32 seconds left.

A free throw by Fairfield's Candice Lindsay increased the lead to 67-65 with 8.7 seconds left to set up the final play.

Nolan told her team to play man defense on most of Hawai'i's players on the final play.

"It was straight up man on four of their players," Nolan said. "We did not play their post player at all. We dropped back our center into the paint to stop penetration and get the rebound."