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Saint George, Utah-January 8, 2011- The No. 25 ranked Dixie State College women's basketball team defeated No. 16 ranked Grand Canyon University 85-72 on Saturday night in the Pacific West Conference opener at the Burns Arena.

For the first time in PacWest history a women's basketball game had featured two ranked teams. The Red Storm (11-1, 1-0) extends their win streak to three games and their home winning streak to 14 games. This marks the second time this season DSC had beaten a ranked opponent at home. They defeated then #5 Seattle Pacific 76-66 on December 4th.

“Winning your conference opener is always a great way to start, especially when you open with Grand Canyon. They have won the title (PacWest) 3 of the last 4 years,” said Head Coach Angie Kristensen.

Poor shooting early in the game allowed Grand Canyon to take the early 9-4 lead. The Red Storm would miss their first five three point attempts before connecting on six of there next eight from behind the arc. DSC used a 10-1 first half run to take the lead. Grand Canyon would tie the game twice but was unable to regain the lead again.

With the game tied at 21 a piece with 8:48 left in the first half, Veronica Siqueiros (Phoenix, AZ/Trevor G Brown) would hit three three-pointers in just under two minutes to give Dixie State a 32-21 advantage with 6:57 left.

Coach Kristensen continued, “We got behind early and struggled shooting, but Veronica came in off the bench and changed the game.”

The Antelopes would respond with their own 11-4 run to cut the Red Storm lead to one at 37-36 with 2:16 left in the half.

Dixie State responded with its own 6-0 run to take a 44-38 lead into the locker room.

In the second half, the Red Storm built an early seven-point advantage on a Shanae Vaifanua (Hurricane, UT/Hurricane) layup, only to see Grand Canyon cut the lead to one point at 53-52 with 14:40 remaining in the game.

Breann Hill (Harrisburg, PA/McDevitt) would score seven of her game and season high 29 points to lead a Red Storm surge and give DSC a 65-55 lead with 9:00 minutes to play. Dixie State would at to it and build its largest lead at 20 points.

Coach Kristensen said, “Bre had an amazing game, but this was also a great team victory with contributions defensively from Erica Carlson (Tucson, AZ/Canyon del Oro HS), Chanel Maxey (Anaheim, CA/Canyon) and Shanae. I thought even with the long Holiday layoff our kids stayed really focused.”

Preseason PacWest Player of the Year and the nations leading scorer, Samantha Murphy, scored 29 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the loss. Rosalyn Nelson scored 15 points and Maylinn Smith chipped in 10 points. Grand Canyon finished the game shooting 40(28-70) percent from the field and 68.8 (11-16) percent from the free throw line.

With the victory the Red Storm snap Grand Canyon's 11-game win streak and place themselves in the drivers seat in the race for the postseason. The conference schedule is grueling and they have 15 games to finish the race.

“We have to take conference one game at a time,” concluded Coach Kristensen.

Dixie State had three other players in double figures, Vaifanua scored 13 points, Brown added 13 points as well and grabbed 7 rebounds and Maxey chipped in 10 points. Carlson had four blocks and had 9 rebounds.

Despite turning the ball over 18 times, DSC won the rebounding battle 41-36. The Red Storm finished the game shooting 50 (30-60) percent from the field and 81.8 (18-22) percent from the free throw line.

The Red Storm will have a nine-day layoff before making their three-game San Francisco Bay Area trip. DSC opens the road trip with a game at Academy of Art University on January 17th at 6:30 PM.