It’s a common trait for most freshmen college basketball players to have early jitters when playing in a new system. But Cougar freshman guard Viont’e Daniels ignored that stereotype Friday, as he took just one minute and 17 seconds to bury his first collegiate 3-pointer.

Daniels’ confidence level rose throughout the game, and the Federal Way native shot 5-5 from 3-point range to lead the Washington State men’s basketball team (1-0) to a season opening victory over Northern Arizona (0-1), 82-70, in Beasley Coliseum.

“My teammates found me and I knocked down shots,” Daniels said in the postgame press conference. “We all played together as a team and getting better each and every day.”

While the announced crowd of 3,011 at Beasley Coliseum may have been surprised to see the true freshman make such a big statement in his first college game, Head Coach Ernie Kent was not.

“Viont’e, since he’s been here, since he came this summer, he has looked like that every single day with the exception of one day,” Kent said. “He’s had one bad day of practice where he didn’t come in and shoot the ball. He has shot it that well, he spends a lot of time on his game, he’s one of those special players where he does everything you ask him to do.”

WSU redshirt junior center Valentine Izundu also made his Cougar debut Friday night, and did not leave Cougar fans disappointed. The 6-foot-10, 235-pound center made his biggest presence on the defensive end with four blocked shots.

Due to Izundu’s height and athleticism, the Lumberjacks had to think twice about shots in the paint when the Cougar center was on the floor. As a result, Northern Arizona shot 37 percent from the field against the Cougars.

“I’ve been bragging about Val for a year now,” WSU junior forward Josh Hawkinson said. “He’s just been in practice and no one gets to see any of the stuff he does, all the blocks or the people he dunked on or that type of stuff, but now that he’s available to play I think the students and everyone across the country is just going to see how athletic and how much of a player he is and how much of a defensive help he can bring to our team.”

Hawkinson tallied 15 points and 11 rebounds against Northern Arizona. In the first half, Hawkinson wasn’t much of a factor because of the contributions his teammates were making. However, he developed a hot hand in the second half and hit 4-8 from the field.

Hawkinson said Friday’s regular season opener shows how much deeper this team is than last year’s.

“I think we have guys like (freshman Robert Franks, junior Connor Clifford, senior Junior Longrus and Izundu) behind me in the post, that provides a huge spark off the bench, and I think Val had a really good game defensively and just brought a lot of energy for the students and for our team as well,” Hawkinson said. “The guards as well continue to push the pace and find open shooters.”

The Cougars will host Idaho State at 8 p.m. Friday in Beasley Coliseum. For those unable to attend the game, the Pac-12 Networks will broadcast it.