HALAWA - Riley Nelson threw for a career-high 363 yards and three touchdowns and Brigham Young rallied past Hawaii, 41-20, Saturday night.

An Aloha Stadium crowd of 30,765 saw the Cougars improve to 9-3 in the first meeting between the old rivals since 2002. The Warriors, whose season ends with a 6-7 record, failed to reach the postseason for the second time during head coach Greg McMackin's four-year tenure.

"We aren't going to a bowl game," McMackin said. "I feel bad for the players, coaches and the fans, everybody with the program."

Nelson completed 25 of his 37 pass attempts without an interception to help BYU post 530 yards of total offense and 28 first downs.

Hawaii held a 13-7 lead in the second quarter following a 79-yard touchdown pass from David Graves to Trevor Davis, but it was all Cougars after that.

BYU reeled off 34 straight points to surge ahead, 41-13, by early in the fourth quarter.

"We moved the ball in the first half, but we didn't put points on the board in the first half because of a couple missed kicks," Cougars' coach Bronco Mendenhall said. "We had to tighten up a few things, which happened in the second half. We played with a little more emotion and more execution-sound. I think we improved again and are still gaining momentum."

A 33-yard field goal by BYU's Justin Sorensen just before halftime cut the Warriors lead to 13-10 at the intermission.

The Cougars scored on their first possession of the third quarter on a 12-yard scoring strike from Nelson to Ross Apo, who broke three tackles en route to the end zone. On Hawaii's ensuing possession, BYU's Uona Kaveinga forced a fumble by Joey Iosefa, which was recovered and returned 26 yards by Joe Sampson for a Cougars' touchdown. That made the score, 24-13, in favor of BYU.

Bryan Kariya extended the Cougars' lead with a 1-yard touchdown run later in the third quarter and Nelson connected with Cody Hoffman for a 38-yard touchdown pass and BYU led, 38-13, after three quarters.

Sorensen tacked on a 37-yard field goal early in the fourth quarter to give the Cougars' their largest lead at 41-13.

Hawaii got a late score on a 23-yard pass from Shane Austin to Jeremiah Ostrowski.

John Hardy-Tuliau made a game-high 10 tackles for Hawaii, which lost four of its final five games.

It was the first meeting between the former Western Athletic Conference rivals since 2002, when BYU beat Hawaii, 35-32, in Provo. BYU was in the WAC from 1962 to 1999 before leaving for the Mountain West Conference. Hawaii, which has been a WAC member since 1979, joins the Mountain West next year. The Cougars now lead the all-time series against Hawaii, 20-8. The teams are scheduled to play again in each of next two seasons.

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