Dixie State’s men’s and women’s basketball teams took losses Friday, with the men losing in overtime at a tournament in Washington and the women falling at Sonoma State.
CWU 99, DSU 95 (F/OT)
The Trailblazers nearly won it regulation. With the shot clock turned off and the score tied, Dixie State coach Jon Judkins called a timeout with 19 seconds left to set up the final play. After running the clock down to eight seconds, Trevor Hill drove the lane on the right side, pulled up and dished a pass across the lane to Isaiah Clark. The DSU big was unable to handle it though, and Central Washington stole the ball and took the game to overtime.
DSU then went cold, failing to score a field goal until the waning seconds and dropping its third straight to open the regular season.
The Trailblazers looked good in the first half against the undefeated Wildcats. They opened the game with a 7-0 run and quickly extended the lead to 19-10 on Brandon Miller’s layup with 12:03 remaining in the half. CWU hit three straight to cut the lead to three.
Then DSU had a 5-0 run to take the lead to 24-16. Moments later, two Dub Price free throws gave the Blazers their first double-digit lead, 28-18, with 6:53 remaining. Three minutes later, Kyler Nielson gave DSU its largest lead of the night at 41-27 on two more free throws. The Wildcats clawed back, closing the half on a 9-2 run to trail 43-36 at halftime.
Coming out of the locker room, DSU would maintain its advantage. It returned to double digits 57-47 on two Quincy Mathews free throws with 12:49 remaining. Three minutes later, Zac Hunter’s layup had the Blazers up 66-57.
At that point, Central Washington, who went 0-11 from behind the arc in the first half, caught fire, hitting five of their next six shots including a perfect 4-4 from distance. With six minutes to play, CWU had closed the gap to tie the game at 71-71. CWU took its first lead of the game on its next shot, a 3-pointer from the corner to go up 74-73 with 4:36 remaining.
The lead see-sawed over the last four minutes and the Blazers missed several key opportunities at the charity stripe. Miller’s 3-pointer gave DSU the lead late 86-84 with 56 seconds remaining. CWU scored just before the shot clock expired on a backdoor cut to set up DSU’s final possession in regulation.
For the game, DSU outshot the wildcats 41.5 to 40.8 percent. Central Washington did better from distance 35.3-28.0 percent and getting five more treys 12-7. The Wildcats also outscored Dixie State at the line 29-20, where the Trailblazers shot poorly, only hitting 55.6 percent.
Dixie State outscored the Wildcats in the paint 40-24. Dixie State also got 46 points from its bench. Rebounds were even for both teams at 52, with the Blazers holding the edge in offensive rebounds 19-10.
Individually for the Trailblazers, Hill led the way with 22 points, 15 rebounds and six assists. Brandon Miller and Marcus Bradley had 16 and 14 points, respectively. Simister matched Hill with six assists.
Dixie State will continue its road trip Saturday when the Blazers play the host team in the second half of the Seattle Pacific Invitational. Game time is scheduled for 2 p.m. Pacific Time.
Women’s Basketball
Sonoma State 82, Dixie State 58
The Dixie State women’s basketball team dug into an early deficit against Sonoma State and never recovered. Trailing 29-14 after the first quarter, the Trailblazers played even ball over the next two quarters, then saw the Sea Wolves pull further ahead in the fourth for the 82-58 victory.
The Blazers got their only lead early in the game when Tramina Jordan and Lisa VanCampen hit back-to-back 3-pointers for a 6-4 advatage. Six turnovers over the next six minutes led SSU on a 25-9 run to finish the first quarter.
In the second, the Sea Wolves scored the first six points and started the quarter with an 11-2 run for a 40-17 lead. DSU made a mini run to end the first half, outscoring SSU 10-6 to go in the locker room down 46-27. Ali Franks had four points during the run.
SSU maintained and eventually added to the halftime lead in the third. With 1:40 remaining they held a 60-387advantage. The Blazers then scored nine straight points, all from the charity stripe to pull within 60-46. A late bucket in the quarter had the Sea Wolves start the fourth quarter up sixteen.
The Blazers could not cut into the lead any further however. The Sea Wolves outscored DSU in the final stanza 20-12.
“We got our butts kicked tonight,” said Dixie State head coach J.D. Gustin. “There is really not much else to say. Van Campen had a good game tonight with the double-double.”
SSU outshot the Blazers 46.4-32.7 percent from the field. They also forced Dixie State to turn the ball over 24 times resulting in 36 points. Sonoma State had 17 more shots than DSU despite being outrebounded by the Blazers 38-31. Sonoma State also had a big advantage in the paint, doubling up DSU 44-22.
Individually for the Blazers, VanCampen led the team with 17 points and 12 rebounds. Shelby Kassuba also had double-figure scoring with 12 points. Kassuba led the team with six assists.
The Blazers fall to 0-3 and will face tournament host Chico State tomorrow night. Game time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
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