MBB Notes: Dixie Marches with the Penguins

Game two of Bay Area Trip is at winless Dominican

Jeremiah Barnes leads DSC in assists

Game Notes vs. Dominican University

UP NEXT - The Dixie State College Men's Basketball Team (8-4, 1-1) plays the second game of a three-stop Bay Area road trip on Thursday night, January 20 against the Penguins of Dominican University. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Pacific, 8:30 p.m. Mountain - following the complettion of the preceding women's game. Dixie State evened up their record in the Pacific West Conference with a 78-63 win over Academy of Art on Monday. Dominican University will play in their first league home game after being swept out of Hawaii to open PWC play. The Penguins are looking for their first win of the year and hope this year's game in San Rafael looks similar to the 2010 version. The Red Storm got a final second tip-in from Nick Howard (Sandy. UT/Jordan) to beat Domincan 72-70 at the Conlan Center.

RED STORM WATCH - The Red Storm, the defending PacWest Conference Co-Champions, is currently led by Tom Whitehead (St. George, UT/Dixie), averaging team-highs in points (16.0) and rebounds (5.3) per game. Griffon Jones (Cheney, WA/Cheney) is the only other Red Storm player in double-figures this season, accounting for 11.3 points per game and 5.1 boards. Dixie State is scoring 71.3 points per game and holding opponents to 62.3 points per contest. DSC is pulling down an average of 35.9 rebounds in a game and has been stingy on defense, forcing 15.8 turnovers each game with a +1.9 turnover margin.

THE OPPONENT - After surprising a lot of Pac West teams in their first year of competition in 2009-10, the Dominican Penguins looked to build momentum behind Conference Freshman of the Year Austin Bryan and a talented core of returning players. Thus far in 2010-2011, Bryan has not seen the court recovering from knee surgery and the Penguins have not seen the win column. Dominican enters Thursday night's game with Dixie State sporting a 0-14 overall record including four losses to begin PWC play. Three defeats came from Division-I opponents (Hampton, Colorado State, University of San Francisco) during the Hilltop Challenge. In their most recent game, Hawaii Pacific rode the swell of a 16-1 run to open the second half eventually beating DUC 80-61 in a game played on the campus of BYU-Hawaii. Sophomore center Killian Larson paced the Penguins with 17 points.
The Penguins, under the direction of veteran head coach Bret Tovani, are being led in scoring by senior guard Adam Chavis with 12.6 points per game. Larson grabs 5.6 rebounds a game while averaging nine points. Dominican ranks last in the Pacific West in team scoring (57.4), field goal percentage (40.3) and field goal percentage defense (48.0).

RED STORM VS DOMINICAN IN THE PACIFIC WEST
2009-10
Dixie State 74, Dominican 72 (1/18 in San Rafael)
Dixie State 73, Dominican 64 (2/25 in St. George)
Overall Record: 2-0

APPROACHING CAREER MARKS - Tom Whitehead (St. George, UT/Dixie) ranks second 821 points in 63 career games at Dixie State. To reach the 1,000-point benchmark, he needs to average 11.2 points per game. Reaching current assistant coach Ryan Sanchez for the D-II scoring record (1,052), Whitehead will need 14.4 PPG. Jeremiah Barnes (Compton, CA/Los Altos) sits fourth on the D-II assist list with 144 dimes. To pass Adam Ross (Torrance. CA/North Torrance ) for third, he needs only 10 assists. Reaching Dan Stock's record of 238 helpers, Barnes will need 5.8 assists over the final 16 Pac West games.

ROAD WARRIORS - Dixie State College racked up the frequent flyer miles in the non-conference schedule playing nine of their first 10 games away from the Burns Arena. DSC is 4-1 in true road games (including Monday's win at AAU) and 3-2 in neutral court games played in tournament action. Mesa State handed Dixie its lone road loss 65-57 in the championship game of a Thanksgiving tournament on Nov. 27.

STORM ON THE RADIO/WEB - Dixie State games can be heard on KXDS (91.3 FM) with John Potter calling the play-by-play. They can also be heard on the web by going to the Utah State Athletics home page at www.DixieAthletics.com and clicking on the Live Audio link in the calendar section.

LIVE STATS - Fans can follow Red Storm home games through the DSC web site at www.DixieAthletics.com via Sidearm Sports, a free service, which updates play-by-play and statistics throughout the game. Road game live stats will also be available through DixieAthletics.com on the front page calendar.

ON THE INTERNET - All of Dixie State's home games are available to watch live through America One via the internet at www.DixieAthletics.com. DSC fans can also listen to every game both home and away thanks to Network1Sports.com, via DSC's web site. Select games on the road will also be available. Check the front page calendar on DixieAthletics.com for availability.

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