ST. GEORGE — Haley Holmstead and Brianna White led the Dixie State University women’s basketball team to a 75-62 win over Fresno Pacific University Monday night inside the Burns Arena.
Trailing 33-27 at intermission, the Red Storm (7-7 overall, 5-3 in the Pac West Conference) used a 9-5 run to open the second half and cut the Sunbird (3-10 and 3-4) lead to 40-38 with 15:31 left in the game.
A minute and thirty seconds later, White found Taylor Maynes for a layup that tied the game at 40-40. Austen Harris then stole the ball from Breann Buczek and found White, who was fouled and went to the line and connected on both free-throws to give the Storm the lead for good with 11:39 left.
“It was great to get our first home win, hopefully many more to come,” said head coach Catherria Turner.
White scored 14 of her 16 points in the second half, including two big three-point shots.
“We had to call on our bench this game and they stepped up,” Turner said. “We have to control the turnovers, however we did out-rebound them.”
Fresno Pacific didn’t back down, despite playing without its leading scorer and rebounder and cut the Red Storm lead to five points with 4:55 remaining. Kaylah Miller would follow with a jumper and a 3-pointer in about 30 seconds to build the DSU lead back to 11 points and put the knife in the heart of the Sunbirds.
The Red Storm committed 28 turnovers to Fresno Pacific’s 18. But DSU capitalized by grabbing 45 rebounds to 19 for FPU.
The major difference came at the free throw line, where the Red Storm were 28 for 32 and the Sunbirds finished just 5 of 8 in the game.
DSU hits the road for a three-game road swing to Southern California. The Storm start with a match-up next Saturday at California Baptist and Monday at Azusa Pacific.
Stats: DSU 75, FPU 62
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