A decade after a freshman electrified Aloha Stadium, another young receiver tried to provide a spark for the Hawaii football team.

Prior to kickoff on Saturday, the scoreboard flashed highlights of Chad Owens’ breakout performance against Brigham Young 10 years ago, and the former UH great was given the microphone to rouse the crowd as the Warriors entered the field to face the Cougars.

With the Warriors hoping to summon some of the magic of that afternoon, current wideout Trevor Davis provided some oxygen to UH’s flickering postseason hopes with a 79-yard second-quarter touchdown.

But the sparkle of that moment faded quickly.

Davis’ touchdown gave UH a 13-10 lead going into halftime, but the Hawaii offense gave up a fumble return for a BYU touchdown early in the third quarter and couldn’t muster answers to the Cougars’ second-half onslaught in a 41-20 season-ending loss.

"It’s really tough to see our seniors like this," said Davis, who closed his freshman season by catching six passes for 111 yards. "Any game, you want to win. But … this game was big for (the seniors) and we really wanted to win for them. So it’s really tough from that aspect."

Any lingering thoughts of Hawaii closing the year in the Sheraton Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve were extinguished when BYU scored 28 unanswered points in the third quarter while UH mustered just 6 yards of total offense.

Hawaii went three and out on four of its first five possessions of the second half. The exception was a drive extended by a roughing-the-passer penalty. But running back Joey Iosefa fumbled two plays later and the Cougars ran it back to ignite the blowout.

"It was a big momentum swing, but we had opportunities," UH offensive coordinator Nick Rolovich said.

"They play a few coverages and they do it well. They don’t want big plays; they wanted to make us drive the ball and they were able to do that and kept us in trouble."

UH sophomore David Graves completed 13 of 23 passes for 186 yards in his second start. He ran for the Warriors’ first touchdown and hit Davis on a wide-receiver screen that popped open for the 79-yard score.

"They blitzed, so it just opened up right away," Davis said. "All the blocks were great. The linemen really made that play."

Guard Andrew Faaumu picked up the blitz and center London Sapolu broke downfield to take out the safety and clear the way for Davis.

"It was wide open," Sapolu said following his final UH game. "(Tackle) Brett (Leonard) did a good job cutting his guy, Faaumu did a good job of taking his gap. You can’t draw it up any better."

But few plays went according to design the rest of the way and the Warriors couldn’t muster another score until Shane Austin, who relieved Graves in the third quarter, threw a late touchdown pass to Miah Ostrowski with the outcome long since decided.

"We were winning the game and at halftime, we were talking about coming out with a second wind, and it’s just a bummer the ball didn’t bounce our way," Graves said.