He was rolling out a brand-new Boston College basketball team - nine freshmen and two transfers.

Experience was minimal, so he had to brace himself for what he knew would be a rocky opening game.

All of the Eagles did.

“I think we knew, or at least I figured coming into this game, that the first couple minutes would be a little ugly,’’ said senior guard John Cahill. “We’ve got a lot of young guys that are coming out here for the first time in front of their peers, fans and all that.’’

The first four minutes were rough. There were airballs, turnovers, and bad fouls. But eventually the jitters wore off.

Cahill said, “I think once we got to that four minutes we realized, ‘All right, we can do this. We’re ready to go now.’ ’’

Cahill hit one shot in BC’s 67-64 win over New Hampshire last night at Conte Forum, a 3-pointer off an assist from Matt Humphrey that put the Eagles ahead, 65-61, with 55 seconds left.

The shot came less than a minute after he committed his only turnover, and it was a look he had been waiting for since first half, when his first 3-point try missed everything.

“I was waiting all game just to get a shot,’’ Cahill said. “I had an earlier look in the game and I airmailed it a little bit . . . But I knew the guys would find me a shot, and I just wanted to knock it down, stay confident.’’

The Eagles weren’t necessarily crisp (21 of 56 from the floor, 17 of 31 from the line, with 14 turnovers and just seven assists), but they were resourceful, clawing back after giving up an early lead and using a 1-3-1 press to force the Wildcats (1-1) into 17 turnovers.

They also got a big night from German guard Patrick Heckmann, who scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Ryan Anderson added a 13-point, 10-rebound effort to help fend off the Wildcats. Heckmann’s mother, Ulli, was on hand to watch his first game.

“I was pretty excited before the game, but I just had to go out there and see how it feels and it was a good feeling,’’ Heckmann said. “It was fun out there and we were competing real hard and I think we did a really good job keeping our composure and winning the game.’’

Heckmann slashed to the rim, played the wing, and brought the ball up at times, but his biggest shot was a long 3-pointer that beat the halftime buzzer and gave the Eagles a 30-23 lead. He got a scare in the second half when he twisted his ankle, but he returned after a quick trip to the locker room.

“He’s going to make a lot of plays for us and a lot of plays for himself, and he’s going to get a lot of people open,’’ Cahill said. “I think he’s going to be a tough matchup for a while in this league, and I think tonight was a glimpse of that.’’

This is a different Eagles team than the one that won 21 games last season. It lost 89 percent of its scoring and assists, 80 percent of its rebounding, 92 percent of its blocks, and 78 percent of its steals.

Donahue knows making up for that with so many new faces will require patience.

“We’re not going to play well every night,’’ he said. “We’re going to have failures. But for us to be really good, we’ve got to react to those failures. I’m not going to stop playing these guys, I’m not going to stop encouraging them, we’re going to keep trying to build this program the right way with these guys playing but understanding that we’re going to have some down nights.’’

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.