ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hawaii running back Mike Bass got past Brigham Young linebacker Colby Bockwoldt on a 37-yard run yesterday. The Warriors could not snap a winless streak at Provo, Utah, losing to the Cougars 35-32, despite leading at halftime.
UH throws PROVO, Utah >> This time the Hawaii Warriors got the long, sad plane ride home.
one away
Turnovers and missed
Chang says picks cost UH game
opportunities are the story
as the Warriors fall
to BYU 35-32
Chang's not grown, but he's still growing
Schools want to continue rivalry
Notes and stats
By Dave Reardon
dreardon@starbulletin.comLosing a game from beginning to end, like when UH pounded Brigham Young last year, leaves a bad feeling. But in some ways, it's worse when you fritter away one you honestly felt you should have won, one that you led at halftime.
That was the case for UH here yesterday, as the Warriors left Edwards Stadium having fallen 35-32 to their rival Cougars. Hawaii has lost eight games in Provo and never won.
UH coach June Jones said his team ran out of time in falling to 1-1.
"That's exactly how I feel," Jones said. "If we get the onside kick, we're going to win."
That was with 30 seconds left. So even if UH had recovered, it would have needed a big play or two to match the drive that got them within three points.
The Warriors scored the final points with 32 seconds left on a last-gasp drive that ended with Thero Mitchell's 2-yard touchdown run and a 2-point conversion pass to Clifton Herbert from Tim Chang.
But they didn't recover Justin Ayat's onside try, as BYU's Reno Mahe cradled the ball. The Cougars took a knee three times on offense as time ran out.
"I am glad that one's over," Cougars coach Gary Crowton said. "A lot of hype for that game and I knew that they would come in ready, and it was going to be a tough game."
In the end, altitude (4,500 feet), attitude (BYU wanted payback after being pounded 72-45 by UH last year) and the home crowd didn't really matter. It came down to making plays in a game that was filled with mistakes by both -- including four interceptions by Chang.
The Cougars ended up making fewer miscues, and Marcus Whalen rumbled through the Warriors' defense for 141 yards and two touchdowns. Backup quarterback Lance Pendleton carried for two more scores.
Hawaii ran well at times, too, with Mike Bass rushing for 92 yards on just nine carries, and Mitchell banging for 41 yards and two TDs.
But what of the passing display quarterbacks Bret Engemann and Chang were supposed to supply for the ESPN national television audience and 63,085 on hand?
Both completed less than half their passes, and Chang was intercepted four times -- twice by Kip Nielsen.
Some of the mistakes might have been caused by the rain that started late in the first half and continued through most of the third quarter. But not all.
The way it started, it appeared BYU might suffer something similar to the Aloha Stadium shellacking of last December as special teams problems continued to plague the Cougars.
Two bad snaps by Gabriel Reid led to a 22-yard field goal by Ayat and a 6-yard scoring pass from Jason Whieldon to Neal Gossett, giving the Warriors a 10-0 lead with 6:15 left in the first quarter.
But UH should have been leading by more.
After the opening kickoff, the Warriors drove to the BYU 21, where UH had a second-and-1 situation. But Chang threw two incomplete passes and Ayat missed a 39-yard field goal.
On the next possession, UH couldn't score a touchdown with two tries from the BYU 5, and the Warriors settled for the field goal.
"It's nobody's fault, but we didn't make the best of our opportunities," UH right guard Vince Manuwai said.
When the Warriors pummeled the Cougars in December, linebacker Pisa Tinoisamoa made a crushing tackle of quarterback Brandon Doman at the UH goal line, hurting the Cougars' hopes for a second-half comeback. This time, the momentum swing right before intermission was the opposite -- BYU rolled down the field from its own 20, using 2:55 of the last 3:17 to run 11 plays. The touchdown came on a 19-yard pass from Engemann to Toby Christensen.
"Right at the end of the first half, when we went into the two-minute offense, we went down and scored and made it 17-14, I felt like we were going to be all right," Crowton said.
BYU closed it to 10-7 when a 1-yard TD run by Whalen capped an 11-play, 65-yard drive at 12:38 of the second quarter. It made this the 340th consecutive game in which the Cougars scored, an NCAA record.
Hawaii defensive coordinator Kevin Lempa wasn't expecting to blank the Cougars. But he also didn't expect Whalen to blow into the UH secondary throughout the game, either.
"They ran the ball a little bit more than I thought they would. When you have some success with something, you're going to keep doing it until somebody stops you," Lempa said. "We tried a couple different things at the end there, and then they come in with the other kid, who runs the option."
That would be Pendleton, who helped the Cougars present a different look after the Warriors stopped Engemann's passing game in the fourth quarter.
Also, it was Pendleton's 12-yard TD that gave BYU its first lead, 21-17, at 6:51 of the third quarter. Whalen carried three times for 26 yards and caught a 20-yard pass to fuel a 95-yard drive that started with Nielsen's second interception of Chang.
Whalen's second score, a 4-yard run, came four minutes later. It was set up by a beautiful 13-yard reverse by Mahe. BYU led 28-17, and Hawaii was in danger of experiencing what it had inflicted in December.
But Chang bounced back to direct most of a 10-play, 70-yard drive that finished with Whieldon hitting Britton Komine with a 1-yard TD pass.
The Cougars appeared to throw the knockout blow when they converted Levi Madariata's interception of Chang into Pendleton's second score, a 2-yard run with 2:36 left, making it 35-24.
Hawaii had one last rally left, as Chang's 41-yard, fourth-down completion to Justin Colbert got the ball to the BYU 8 with 1:03 left. Mitchell scored with 32 seconds left, and Chang's successful conversion pass to Herbert kept UH's slim hopes alive -- but those ended when the ball fell into Mahe's hands on Ayat's kick.
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