HONOLULU – Dixie State sophomore guard Brandon Simister scored a career-high 24 points, including a 3-pointer with two seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime, as the Red Storm defeated Chaminade 103-100 Saturday night.
Simister, who played his high school ball at Desert Hills, was 5 of 8 from beyond the 3-point arc. His deep ball late capped an 18-7 rally over the last six minutes to put the game into OT. The Storm outplayed Chaminade in the overtime to come away with the season sweep and move ahead of the Silverswords into the sixth place spot for the PacWest conference tournament.
Chaminade led 82-71 with 5:55 remaining before a huge DSU rally.
“They hit some big shots,” said Dixie State head coach Jon Judkins. “Give them credit. They have some very good shooters and they find ways to get them open.”
The Storm got back into the game with an 11-1 run culminated by a Simister 3-pointer to pull to 83-81 with 2:48 remaining. However the Storm lost post Mark Ogden, Jr., who got his fifth foul during the run.
“When Mark (Ogden) fouled out, we lost a lot of size,” said Judkins. “With Zac Hunter not playing tonight (due to injury), we got a lot smaller. I thought Josh Fuller did a good job inside.”
Chaminade scored the next four points to go up 87-81. Trevor Hill canned two free throws with 36 seconds left. The Storm were forced to foul. With 25 seconds remaining, Fuller fouled Chaminade’s Sam Daly. Daly hit 1 of 2.
Hill drove the lane at the other end and hit the bucket and drew the foul with 18 seconds left. After a Chaminade timeout, he completed the 3-point play. Simister immediately fouled Goodwin on the inbounds pass. Goodwin hit 1 of 2 to give DSU a chance at the other end.
Sawyer could not connect on his trey attempt, but Hill snagged the rebound and found Simister, whose shot from distance was money to tie the game at 89 with two seconds left. The Silverswords came up empty and the game went to overtime.
Simister started the overtime scoring with three free throws to give the Storm a 92-89 lead. Shastri tied the game with his sixth 3 pointer of the game with 4:08 remaining in OT.
Hill rebounded his own shot and got a putback to put the Storm back up. After an empty Chaminade possession, Fuller put DSU up four with a shot in the lane. Goodwin halved the lead with 2:52 remaining.
Sawyer hit 1 or 2 from the line to give the Storm a 3-point lead, 97-94, with 2:29 left. Chaminade got the next four points to take the lead 98-97. Hill once again put back his own miss at the other end to give Dixie State the lead with less than a minute to go.
After a missed Chaminade jumper, Hill again drove the lane and got his third basket in overtime to put Dixie up 101-98 with 12 seconds remaining.
“I thought Trevor Hill played outstanding tonight, particularly late in the game and in the overtime,” said Judkins. “He was aggressive, took control and either scored, got fouled or both.”
Chaminade called a timeout. Simister fouled James Harper to send him to the line for three free throws with three seconds left. However, Harper missed the first free throw. Chaminade elected to hit the next two and then foul Simister with 1.3 seconds left. Simister canned both for the 3-point lead.
The Silverswords got the long pass to Daly, but this time there was no foul and the shot came up short, giving Dixie State the hard-fought victory.
Early on, the Storm jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead. Robbie Nielson scored five on a layup and 3-pointer, both assisted by Mason Sawyer. The lead climbed to 12-4 on Mark Ogden’s power move in the lane. The lead climbed to double digits when Josh Fuller took an interior post pass from Odgen and converted with 14:47 remaining to put the score at 16-6.
The Storm maintained the 10-point advantage at 20-10 with 13:35 remaining in the half before the Silverswords went on a 12-0 run. Silversword wing Rohndell Goodwin canned two 3s and scored eight points during the run. Ogden’s free throws with 8:17 remaining broke the run.
The Silversword first-half lead would climb to as high as 6. The score was 36-30 with 3:14 remaining in the half. The Storm rallied and ended the half on a 10-0 run. Ogden scored 4 and the Storm got treys from Sawyer and Brandon Simister to give them a 40-36 advantage at halftime.
The Storm maintained control to start the second half. With 15:55 to play, the DSU lead was 49-46 on Fuller’s move in the lane. Chaminade then put together a 13-4 run over the next two minutes. Sharpshooter Kiran Shastri had three 3-pointers during the run. The Silverswords maintained a 4-6 point lead over the next two minutes.
Dixie State’s Quincy Matthews’ jump shot with 12:41 remaining ignited an 8-0 run that put the Storm back on top 63-61. The lead would climb to four on Ogden’s post move with just under 10 minutes remaining, 68-64. The Silverswords responded by outscoring DSU 12-0 over the next two minutes. Again, it was the outside shooting that exacted the most punishment during the run, including one more from Shastri. With 7:48 remaining the Silverswords led 76-68, setting up the late DSU run.
The Silverswords outshot Dixie State 52-47 percent from the floor and outscored DSU by 13. But the Storm outscored Chaminade 27-11 from the line. DSU shot 87 percent from the charity stripe, 16 points above the Storm average. In all other aspects, the teams played even. Rebounds were tied at 36-36. Both teams got seven steals and forced the other team into 18 turnovers.
Individually, Shastri led six Silverswords in double-figure scoring with 22 points, hitting 67 percent of his 3-pointers (6-9). Goodwin put in 19.
For the Storm, Simister scored 24 points, including the 3-pointer to put the game into overtime. Hill scored 21. Post men Fuller and Ogden scored 16 apiece. Sawyer added 13. Hill also led the team with eight rebounds.
Dixie State improves to 9-7 overall, 6-4 in the PacWest. Chaminade falls to 7-10 and drops into a tie for eighth place in the PacWest standings. The Storm will play BYU-Hawaii on Tuesday night. Dixie State can pass BYU-H and move into fifth place with a win. Game time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Hawaii Time (10:30 p.m. in Utah).
Stats: DSU 103, Chaminade 100
Women’s basketball
Dixie State 61, Chaminade 56
The Dixie State women’s basketball completed a season sweep of Chaminade with a low score of 61-56. Both teams shot better in the earlier game at Burns Arena when they combined for 72 more points in the 103-86 DSU victory.
The Storm (4-12, 4-6 PacWest) connected on just 32 percent (24-of-73) of their shots, but forced 19 Silverswords turnovers and got 25 points off the bench to help seal the victory. With the win DSU improved its all-time record to 18-1 over CUH, including an undefeated 10-0 mark in Honolulu.
“This was a great team win for us,” head coach Jenny Thigpin said. “Our bench players came in and played well. Tonight it was our defense that got the job done. We were able to get huge stops down the stretch.”
Dixie State jumped out to a 5-0 lead early in the first quarter after a Chermayne Moore layup in the paint and an old-fashioned 3-point play by Taylor Mann. Chaminade responded with its own 5-0 run pull even at 5-5 at the 8:04 mark of the period. The teams traded baskets through the rest of the quarter, as neither team managed a lead larger than four points, and the Storm closed the quarter with an 18-17 lead.
DSU began to pull away in the second quarter when Tramina Jordan nailed a 3-pointer, sparking a 17-7 run over the next 8:18 to give the Storm their first double-digit lead of the game at 35-24. The Silverswords answered with consecutive baskets, and the Storm led 35-28 at the halftime break.
The Storm pushed the lead back to 41-32 midway through the third quarter when Mann scored a layup in the paint, and the Storm seemed poised to build another double-digit lead. However, Chaminade had other ideas and stayed within striking distance at 46-41 at the end of the third quarter.
Dixie State opened the final period on a 12-6 run to push the lead back to 58-47 with 4:46 remaining, but Chaminade would not go away. The Silverswords forced six DSU turnovers and exploded for a 9-0 run to pull within 58-56 with 32 seconds remaining. Trailing by two points, CUH needed to foul to get the ball back, but still had two fouls to give. The Storm were able to drain more than 20 seconds off the clock before Chaminade finally put Mann at the free throw line, where she connected on 1-of-2 free throws for a 59-56 DSU lead with three seconds to play. The Silverswords were whistled for a technical foul on the ensuing possession, sending Mann back to the free throw line to seal the victory.
DSU shot 18 percent (3-of-16) from 3-point land and 71 percent (10-of-14) from the free throw line, while outrebounding Chaminade 46-41. Mann led the way, finishing with 18 points and 18 rebounds for her 12th double-double of the season. Aliya Davis added eight points and Sandria Bolden chipped in seven points.
The Storm move to 4-12 overall and 4-6 in the PacWest. Chaminade falls to 4-10 overall and 4-6 in the PacWest. DSU is currently in the ninth spot in the PacWest standings. The Storm is three games out of sixth place, the final spot to make the conference tournament with nine games remaining. The Storm will play its final game of the Hawaii trip Tuesday night against BYU-Hawaii. Game time is set for 5 p.m. Hawaii time.
Stats: DSU 61, Chamoinade 56
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