The pain was etched across Tim Kamana’s face.

Staring at the ground during each question asked in his postgame interview, the Wyoming defensive back struggled to find answers for the Cowboys’ second-half collapse against Hawaii.

Holding back the emotions of falling short in his return home, the Punahou graduate lamented over his team’s 38-28 loss to the Rainbow Warriors on Saturday night.

"A loss is a loss. I don’t step on the field to lose — ever," said Kamana, who had four solo tackles and assisted on another. "Sure, it’s in front of my crowd and some of my family and stuff, but any time I lose, it’s not a very good feeling."

Such was the case for every Cowboy walking off the field following a loss in which Wyoming led through the first three quarters.

The Cowboys (3-3, 1-1 Mountain West) held the lead from their first lightning-fast score less than four minutes in until early in the fourth quarter, when Hawaii scored the second of three consecutive touchdowns to pull out the win.

It was an especially tough loss for Kamana, whose secondary got burned bad on Quinton Pedroza’s 53-yard touchdown catch to pull Hawaii within four at 28-24.

After Wyoming quarterback Colby Kirkegaard threw the first of his two fourth-quarter interceptions, Hawaii scored again on a missed tackle as Marcus Kemp bounced off a defender and then outraced Kamana to the corner for a 40-yard touchdown to give UH its first lead.

Wyoming held UH starter Taylor Graham to 108 yards in the first half but had no answer for Ikaika Woolsey, who came in to complete eight of nine passes for 173 yards, averaging more than 19 yards an attempt.

"They came out and mostly ran the ball in the first, had a couple of completions, but at least I wasn’t worried too much about the pass game," Kamana said. "In the second half when they put the new quarterback in, they rolled out of the pocket a little more and started hitting us with some play-actions that we weren’t really ready for, I guess."

Hawaii racked up 284 yards in the second half and scored four touchdowns on a Wyoming team that hadn’t given up more than 21 second-half points in any game this season.

That includes road losses at top-15 teams Oregon and Michigan State.

"We had guys at the point of attack that had a lot of broken tackles," Wyoming coach Craig Bohl said. "Typically when we’ve gotten ahead of people we’ve been able to put the hammer down and we didn’t do that tonight."

The Cowboys still haven’t given up 300 yards passing in a game but struggled to defend Woolsey as much as any QB they faced.

Even Oregon quarterback Marcus Mariota, a Heisman Trophy candidate, threw for only 221 yards against the Cowboys earlier this season.

Hawaii’s two quarterbacks combined for 281 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.

"It was disappointing," Bohl said. "It’s always dangerous to make a couple of measured comments until we watch the tape, but I certainly saw a lot of big plays that we’ve got to get corrected."