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HONOLULU, Hawai'i --  Well, that answered a few questions, didn’t it?

Northern Colorado men’s basketball emphatically answered the query that followed it for much of this offseason -- What’s going to happen without Jabril Banks and Robert Palacios? -- with a 101-73 victory against McNeese State during the first night of the 2009 Outrigger Hotels Hawaii Rainbow Classic at Hawaii’s Stan Sheriff Center.

Senior Will Figures scored a team-high 19 points in the win, and he led a quintet of Bears scoring in double figures. Junior Chris Kaba was right behind with a career-high 17 points, sophomore Mike Proctor was right behind him with a career-high 14 points, Neal Kingman had 13, and Devon Beitzel pitched in 10.

It all added up to Northern Colorado’s third 100-point outburst under Boyle and gives the Bears a chance to start a season 2-0 on Sunday against Southern Utah for the first time as an NCAA Division I team, the first time overall since 2000 and just the third time since 1984.

“This was a great, great start for our program,” Boyle said. “As a staff, we’ve been looking forward to this starter probably more than we have any previous season. We think we’ve got a chance to be pretty good this year, and we definitely showed that tonight.”

The Bears held just a 60-57 lead with 17:14 left in the second half Friday before going on a 16-1 run -- finished by the first three-pointer of redshirt-freshman Elliott Lloyd’s career, a tip-in from Chris Kaba and another trey by Lloyd all within about a minute -- to go up 76-58 at 13:52.

From there, Northern Colorado outscored the Cowboys 25-15 to surpass the century mark for the first time since scoring 105 last year at home against Texas State.

The Bears will next face the Thunderbirds at 5:30 p.m. (MT) on Sunday night and then come right back Monday night against the host Warriors at 11 p.m. on national television, during ESPN’s 24-Hours of Hoops college men’s basketball marathon.

The host Warriors defeatd Southern Utah 65-48 in the nightcap Friday.

“I’ve said it from the beginning,” Boyle said, “this is a great field for us. We match up well with these teams, and I love this format of getting three games in four days. We’ve got some new pieces to integrate this year. Playing like this, so far from home, gives us a chance to get closer as a team, too, and have some success at the same time.

“This is just one game, though. We didn’t come all this way to just win one game. We’ve got to get back to work tomorrow morning and get ready for Southern Utah.”

Boyle talked a lot this summer and during preseason camp about finding a player or two who could replace the scoring punch left behind by Banks’ departure. If Northern Colorado could do that, turn a wildcard into a sure thing, if you will, Boyle’s thought was the Bears would be OK this season and avoid the step back tabbed by many preseason prognosticators.

Well, Kaba and Kingman were both central in those discussions, and both turned in stellar performances Friday night.

Kaba missed just two shots (6-8) Friday, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out four assists in the best performance of his collegiate career. Kingman also missed just two shots (5-7), nailed three of four three-pointers and was a leader on the floor for a lot of the second half, when Boyle got some of his reserves some experience that could loom large the rest of this Rainbow Classic and on down this season.

“When we got those guys (Kaba and Kingman) out of there late in the second half,” Boyle said, “I walked down and told them how proud I was of them. I knew they had it in them, and I think they might be starting to realize that, too. I’ve thought all along that we’ve got the necessary pieces to keep moving forward this year. Tonight, that happened. We’ll see moving forward.”

The Bears shot out to a 17-7 lead early in the first half before the Cowboys went on an 18-7 run to pull ahead one, 25-24, just after the second media break.

The teams alternated the lead for nearly nine minutes after that before Figures’ single free throw at the 3:47 mark and pair of freebies on the Bears' next possession gave Northern Colorado some cushion again with a 44-38 lead.

Kaba’s bucket-and-one conversion with 42 seconds remaining gave him 10 for the half and pushed the Bears’ bulge to seven, 50-43. McNeese State’s eighth three-pointer of the half on its next possession pulled the game back within four, 50-46, but Figures came right down the court and hit a buzzer-beating three to put Northern Colorado up 53-46 heading into the intermission.