In the silence of the Hawai'i football locker room, running back Daniel Libre grimaced from the pain that did not come from his bleeding left elbow.

A row away, wideout Malcolm Lane used a towel to try to wipe away the emotion from his crimson-colored eyes.

"We gave them the game," quarterback Greg Alexander said of the Warriors' 29-24 loss to 13th-ranked Cincinnati last night at Aloha Stadium. "We (bleepin') gave away the game."

The Warriors had hoped to disrupt the Bowl Championship Series system that, a week earlier, had extended an automatic invitation to the Bearcats (11-2) as the Big East champion.

The Warriors had rallied from a 10-0 deficit in the first half to hold a 24-10 lead with 12:36 to play.

But the lead was written in smoke, and after a frenetic surge by the Bearcats, smoke was in the eyes of the Warriors.

Brandon Underwood's 20-yard interception return for a touchdown, Jake Rogers' 44-yard field goal and a safety drew the the Bearcats to 24-22 with 4:59 to play.

Following a free kick, the Bearcats took over at their 31.

Dustin Grutza, who had replaced a woozy Tony Pike, was at quarterback. Grutza had half his weapons; the Bearcats' leading receiver, Dominick Goodman, did not return after being injured on the game's opening possession.

"This is a hostile place to play," Grutza said. "The crowd really got into it. We were down. We had to handle adversity. We had to come through."

The plan was to look to speedy wideout Mardy Gilyard on a boundary route along the right sideline.

Gilyard weaved between nickelback Ryan Mouton, who was playing in front, and safety Desmond Thomas, who was fast approaching.

Gilyard caught the pass, pirouetted away from Thomas and stared at nothing but bare FieldTurf. Gilyard, who is capable of running 40 yards in under 4.5 seconds, sprinted the rest of the way to complete the 69-yard play and give the Bearcats the lead, at 29-24, with 4:42 to play.

"I had to make sure I made a play," Gilyard said. "They gave me an opportunity to make a play, and that's all I could do. That's what we do. We're playmakers. I trust my speed against anybody in the country. Coach (Brian Kelly) called the play, and it was run perfectly."

By then the Warriors, exhausted from their first run to the lead, were out of comebacks. The pocket, which had held up against the Bearcats' powerful pass rush in the third quarter, was now leaky.

"We beat ourselves at the end," Lane said. "We got too conservative. That's what hurts so much. We had the game won. It was right there in our pocket, and then we threw it away. We did everything wrong we could have done."

For the Warriors, small things became magnified. With a little more than three minutes left in the first half, Rogers converted his second field goal of the game, to make it 6-0.

But Antwan "Tua" Mahaley, the Warriors' back-row blocker, was whistled for a personal foul. The ruling was that Mahaley had landed on a Bearcat after leaping to try to make a block.

"I'm not sure about that penalty," Mahaley said. "It's whatever."

The Bearcats opted to discard the field goal, and continue the drive. On the next play, Pike threw 1 yard to wide-open Delbert Ferguson. Rogers' PAT kick made it 10-0.

Dan Kelly's 28-yard field goal just before the intermission made it 10-3, and triggered what would be a 24-point run. UH opened the second half with David Farmer's 1-yard scoring run, which was set up by Lane's 60-yard reception.

UH got the ball back when Guyton Galdeira forced a fumble on the ensuing kickoff return. UH made it 17-10 when Lane caught a 2-yard shovel pass from Alexander.

After Jon Medeiros caught a 16-yard pass from Alexander for his first career touchdown, the Warrior fans began chanting: "Over-rated! ... Over-rated!"

"Our momentum was completely gone," Grutza said.

For the Bearcats, worse came to worst when the Warriors regained possession.

But then Alexander tried to throw to slotback Michael Washington on an underneath route. The pass was tipped, and Underwood intercepted at the UH 20. His touchdown changed the momentum.

"That pick-6 was big," Grutza said. "It got the momentum back."

It led to Rogers' second field goal.

Later, when a punt was downed at the UH 1, the Warriors called for a stretch run. Libre was hit by Drew Frey, and fumbled. Libre recovered the ball near the back line of the end zone for a safety.

It was the latest in a series of mistakes in the fourth quarter.

"Anything possible that could wrong, we did," Lane said. "I give a lot of credit to Cincinnati. It wasn't meant to be. They're No. 13 in the nation for a reason."

Alexander said: "The No. 13 team doesn't need much help, and we helped them."

After the game, the sky was filled with a fireworks meant to mark the final regular-season game for 35 UH seniors. It was a symbolic moment.

"We wanted to go out with a bang for our seniors," defensive end John Fonoti said. "I guess it didn't go that way. But we played our butts off."

Lane said: "A football game is not 55 minutes long. It's 60. You have to play all 60 minutes hard. We didn't play all 60."