Given a clear lane to the end zone in the fall, Dee Maggitt knows better than to celebrate before reaching the goal line.

On the last play of his final spring scrimmage, though, the Hawaii cornerback figured he could afford a little flair.

"Nah, I knew it was a scrimmage, it was my last one, I’m a senior and I just wanted to end with a bang," Maggitt said.

Maggitt punctuated a solid performance by the Hawaii defense in Saturday’s Spring Fling scrimmage by intercepting a pass from Ikaika Woolsey and taking it back 38 yards for a touchdown, covering the last 10 yards in a Deion Sanders-esque strut.

Maggitt’s interception was the last of four turnovers snared by the Rainbow Warriors defense in the unit’s 60-34 win. Points were awarded to the defense for three-and-out stops, sacks and takeaways, and both starting cornerbacks contributed to the scoring.

Maggitt and Ne’Quan Phillips finished with three tackles each, with Phillips in on two sacks. Phillips also forced a fumble on a sack of Jeremy Higgins but didn’t quite check off all of his goals for the afternoon.

"I didn’t get my interception," Phillips said. "Dee Maggitt can lend me one of his interceptions, I guess."

Officially, Maggitt had one interception after having an earlier pick negated by a pass interference call on a teammate.

"When it got called back I just wanted to get one more chance," said Maggitt, who was also credited with breaking up a pass. "It was the last drive, so I was breaking on anything the quarterback was going to throw."

As the Warriors’ top cornerback duo, Maggitt and Phillips are working together to apply their strengths in the new defensive scheme.

"We push each other, we watch film together, we work out together. That’s my guy," Maggitt said. "We’re trying to out-compete each other and it’ll turn into big things.

"I feel my strength is being in the field, his best strength is blitzing, making those kinds of plays. So I think this defense is perfect for both of us."

UH head coach Norm Chow praised the play of the defense after the scrimmage, and Phillips said a meeting called by defensive coordinator Kevin Clune after a lackluster practice earlier in the week ignited the unit for Saturday’s scrimmage.

"The whole defense came out here with a whole lot more effort," Phillips said. "We had a meeting on Thursday. Coach Clune called out everybody individually and had their plays up there in front of the whole defense. So we knew we couldn’t let him down when we came out here.

"He got into us in the meeting and people knew they didn’t want to let their team down like we did on Thursday."

Outside linebacker TJ Taimatuia also had two sacks, and cornerback Gaetano DeMattei finished with a team-high six tackles, with Maggitt’s high-stepping pick-6 capping the festivities at Ching Field.

"That was the end of the game, we were having some fun and they deserve to have some fun," Chow said.