Sports Notebook Star-Bulletin staff

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Hawaii defense always seems to do what it needs to

It wasn't anything Hawaii hadn't seen before on the road this season.

Similar to earlier games against Louisiana Tech and San Jose State, the Warriors defense needed to make a play to keep its undefeated campaign alive.

With Hawaii out of timeouts and 3 minutes remaining, Nevada had a third down in Warrior territory. Holding onto a one-point lead, a first-down conversion would have allowed the Wolf Pack to run out the clock.

The Wolf Pack's 48th rushing attempt of the game went to Brandon Fragger up the middle. Safety Desmond Thomas, who was thrust back into the starting lineup just last week after an injury to Keao Monteilh, filled the hole immediately and stopped Fragger well short of the marker.

"It's my job to make that play," Thomas said. "I figured they were going to run the ball. They had been doing that all night."

Thomas finished with a team-high 11 tackles in his fourth start of the season. The Hawaii defense gave up 216 yards on the ground for the game, but again, stepped up when it needed to most.

"We knew they were going to pound it up the middle all night long," Leonard said. "This is third game for us like this. It's nothing to us now."

Defensive lineman Keala Watson came up with the other big play of the fourth quarter. Nevada was poised to build upon its lead after a fumble by Tyler Graunke gave the Wolf Pack the ball in Hawaii territory.

Two plays later, Wolf Pack receiver Arthur King Jr. caught a quick pass to the outside, but coughed up the ball after a hit by Watson, who also recovered the fumble.

"We made some mistakes that we need to correct, but like all season, we stepped up when it counted," Leonard said. "This will make watching film (today) and (tomorrow) a lot easier."

Streaks extended

Wide receiver Jason Rivers hauled in a 6-yard pass from Graunke midway through the first quarter to push his nation-leading streak of consecutive games with a catch to 47.

The victory was Hawaii's eighth straight on the road and 14th in a row in conference play, which are both school records. It was also Hawaii's 11th consecutive win overall, which is tops in the nation and tied for the longest streak in school history.

Streaks snapped

Colt Brennan fell one game short of tying the NCAA record for consecutive games with a touchdown pass at 34. He also had thrown for at least 200 yards in the same number of games until last night.

Hawaii also had its run of 20 games with at least 32 points come to an end.

However, it was the Warriors' first victory in four games at Mackay Stadium.

After no review

Both teams got big breaks, but one of the biggest was when UH slotback Davone Bess was not called for a fumble when TV replays clearly indicated he lost the ball at the end of a 20-yard catch-and-run near the end of the third quarter.

Nevada's Paul Pratt picked up the loose ball, but the play had been whistled dead. Five plays later, the Warriors scored on a 22-yard pass from Graunke to Ryan Grice-Mullins, giving UH a 25-20 lead.

"That's football. I thought I got the ball out, but it's a game of inches," Pratt said.

The play could not be reviewed by the officials.

Bess led the Warriors with 12 receptions for 137 yards.