LAS VEGAS — It would be fine with Hawaii if this defensive effort stayed in Vegas.
Keith Whitely ran for 124 yards and a touchdown Saturday, Lexington Thomas added 120 more yards with a score, and UNLV earned a 41-21 victory, spoiling interim coach Chris Naeole’s debut and sending the Rainbow Warriors to their seventh consecutive defeat.
“I gave them everything I got this week; put it all in there, put all the effort into it,” Naeole said. “We didn’t make enough plays today.”
Especially defensively.
Taking advantage of big plays in the passing game, UNLV (3-6, 2-3 Mountain West) rolled up 547 total yards. Blake Decker finished with 258 yards and two long touchdown passes for the Rebels, a 75-yard strike to Devonte Boyd and an 85-yard bomb to Aaron Criswell. Boyd finished with 5 catches 120 yards total as UNLV never trailed.
“We come back and score and they hit us with another one,” Naeole said. They got two on us, so it definitely hurt, right there, with two big plays, you know, but that’s the nature of the game and congratulations to them, and they won the game.”
Paul Harris rushed for a career-high 190 yards rushing and a touchdown for the Rainbow Warriors (2-8, 0-6), who were playing their first game after firing head coach Norm Chow.
“He did some good things,” Naeole said. “He got outside. He got away. Obviously, we could’ve have done some things better technically. We’re going to go watch the film, make our corrections and get back at it next week.”
For the second consecutive game, Hawaii allowed more than 500 yards of offense and had two runners surpass 100.
Hawaii quarterback Ikaika Woolsey finished 16 of 33 for 187 yards and an interception.
Woolsey connected with Makoa Camanse-Stevens for a 55-yard completion to set up Melvin Davis 2-yard TD run for Hawaii to cut the deficit to 27-21 with 11:46 remaining, but Thomas and Whitley each scored late in the fourth to put the game away.
One of Naeole’s first moves as coach was to name Woolsey the starter over Max Wittek.
“Ikaika had a good game,” Naeole said. “I think his only real bad play was the flea flicker where he probably should have thrown away the ball.
“Other than that he distributed the ball, and like I said, guys have got to catch the ball. If you don’t catch the ball, it’s hard to call plays and hard to move the ball.”
Hawaii finished the season with three home games. San Jose State comes to the islands next Saturday.
Hawaii 0 7 7 7—21
UNLV 7 7 10 17—41
First quarter
UNLV—Campbell 3 run (Bornand kick), 10:19.
Second quarter
Haw—Harris 34 run (Sanchez kick), 7:04.
UNLV—Criswell 85 pass from Decker (Bornand kick), 2:31.
Third quarter
UNLV—FG Bornand 31, 7:54.
Haw—Davis 1 run (Sanchez kick), 5:56.
UNLV—Boyd 75 pass from Decker (Bornand kick), 5:44.
Fourth quarter
UNLV—FG Bornand 31, 13:47.
Haw—Davis 3 run (Sanchez kick), 11:46.
UNLV—Thomas 3 run (Bornand kick), 7:09.
UNLV—Whitely 7 run (Bornand kick), 2:10.
A—20,006.
Haw UNLV
First downs 16 22
Rushes-yards 31-191 53-289
Passing 187 258
Comp-Att-Int 16-33-1 15-24-1
Return Yards (-4) 16
Punts-Avg. 7-43.1 6-43.2
Fumbles-Lost 3-2 1-1
Penalties-Yards 5-52 6-60
Time of Possession 23:57 36:03
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Hawaii, Harris 20-190, Davis 5-18, Woolsey 6-(minus 17).
UNLV, Whitely 21-124, Thomas 17-120, Palandech 1-19, Campbell 6-13,
Greene 2-9, Decker 4-8, Team 2-(minus 4).
PASSING—Hawaii, Woolsey 16-33-1-187. UNLV, Decker 15-24-1-258.
RECEIVING—Hawaii, Stubblefield 5-27, Bernard 4-29,
Camanse-Stevens 2-70, Harris 2-26, Poti 1-19, ‘Unga 1-18,
Kemp 1-(minus 2). UNLV, Boyd 6-120, Price 3-30, Kend.Keys 2-10,
Whitely 2-4, Criswell 1-85, Thomas 1-9.
Rainbow Wahine
sweep Matadors
Olivia Magill posted 11 kills with only one error on .667 hitting, and Hawaii cruised to it 17th consecutive volleyball victory, beating Cal State Northridge 25-14, 25-17, 25-19 in Northridge, Calif.
Tai Manu-Olevao recorded nine kills and 12 digs, and Kalei Greeley added eight kills 15 digs for the Rainbow Wahine (22-1, 12-0), which hit a robust .436.
Cleana Stinson led the Matadors (5-19, 4-8) with 13 kills.
