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Massey at home vs DOM
Stan Plewe/Utah Tech Athletics

Men's Basketball John Potter, Media Relations Assistant

Storm vs. Lopes - Southwest foes tangle at the Burns (Game Notes)

DSC looking to hold home court against GCU



Dixie State Game Notes
Live Stats | Live Audio | Live Video

GAMEDAY CENTRAL
Dixie State College (9-4, 4-1 PWC) vs. Grand Canyon (8-4, 2-2 PWC)
DATE: Jan. 16, 2012
SITE: Burns Arena (4,835)
TIP-OFF: 7:30 p.m. Mountain
RADIO (Red Storm Radio Network): SportsRadio 1210, 107/102 FM The Fox, online at DixieAthletics.com
TALENT: John Potter (play-by-play) & Devin Dixon (analysis)
SERIES: Dixie State leads the all-time series 9-3

STORM LOCKS HORNS WITH THE ANTELOPES: Dixie State College, winners of two straight Pacific West Conference games including an avenging win over Dominican on Friday, face Grand Canyon University in a MLK-holiday, geographic slugfest on Monday, Jan. 16, 2012. Start time inside the Burns Arena is set for 7:30 p.m. Mountain with live coverage in the Red Storm Radio Network (SportsRadio 1210, 107/102 Cool FM The Fox, DixieAthletics.com) beginning 15 minutes prior to tip.
 
STORM WATCH: DSC enters the Monday's GCU game with a 9-4 overall record and a 4-1 mark in the Pacific West. The Red Storm have averaged 75.1 points per game in nine victories while posting just 57.5 points per game in four losses. Dixie State is led in scoring and rebounding by senior forward Griffon Jones (Cheney, WA/Cheney) (11.8/6.9). Senior point guard Maurice Cole (Norwalk, CA/Santa Fe) dishes out a team-best 3.6 assists per game while scoring 11.2 points. Juniors McKay Massey (Payson, UT/Payson) averages 9.5 points per contest and Derek Owen (St George, UT/Dixie) adds just fewer than eight a game. DSC is averaging 69.7 PPG while holding opponents to 64.6 points on the defensive end, including a conference-best 40.9 field-goal percentage defense.
 
LAST TIME OUT: Nine days removed from its only Pacific West Conference loss this season, Dixie State College erased an eight-point halftime deficit and outscored the Dominican University Penguins 40-21 in the second half en route to a 66-55 victorious decision Friday night in front of a crowd of 3,781 inside the Burns Arena. Griffon Jones (Cheney, WA/Cheney) scored 14 of his game-high 17 points after intermission and Maurice Cole (Norwalk, CA/Santa Fe) added 14 points for the Red Storm (9-4, 4-1 PWC). In a game of scoring runs, Dixie State had the most potent stretches in the second half. Dominican (3-13, 2-3 PWC) struggled to find the hoop over the final 20 minutes. Dixie State's defensive schemes held the Penguins to 32 percent, including 0-of-7 from behind the 3-point arc, after the break.  Dixie State and Dominican played a closely contested first half that saw the Penguins close out with a 17-5 run. The highlight came at the buzzer as a Xander McNally half-court shot ripped the net to give the visitors a 34-26 advantage. After the first media timeout in the second half, DSC had erased the margin with a 12-4 run. Cole had nine points during the stretch, which saw the Red Storm retake the lead. Dominican answered back to close within one, 45-44, with 11:44 left.  The Storm had another push, this time a 9-2 run over four minutes. The combination of free throws and a Landon Clegg (Cedar Hills, UT/Lone Peak) lay-in pushed the advantage to 54-46 with 7:49 remaining. Amazingly, Clegg's shot was the last field goal made by the Red Storm. The team's final 12 points all came via the charity stripe. Dixie State shot 47.6 percent from the floor (20-of-42) and held the Penguins to 38.5 percent, accentuating the Storm's league-leading field-goal percentage defense. Jammall Clark was the only Dominican player in double figures with 14 points.

LOOKING AT THE LOPES: The Antelopes (8-4, 2-2 PWC) bounced back from a winless trip to the Bay Area in the first week of January with a convincing 81-57 home victory over Dominican on the 11th. Kyle Speed led five Lopes in double figures with 19 points. Justin Wesolowski posted a double-doulble of 13 points and 11 rebounds while Jerome Garrison scored 10 points in his first conference start. The Lopes are playing just its fourth game away from the brand-new GCU Arena. GCU is 0-3 away from home with losses at UNLV, Notre Dame de Namur and Dominica. GCU was 2-1 in games against non-conference common opponents - they hadily defeated Seattle Pacific 67-58, lost to Saint Martin's 78-69, and defeated CSU San Bernardino 66-49.Russ Pennell is in his thrid year as GCU head coach. He was named coach a month after leading the University of Arizona to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2009 as the interim coach after Lute Olsen retired. He has served on staffs at Oklahoma State, Ole Miss and Arizona State.
 
JONES BECOMING A FIXTURE ON THE TOP 10: Griffon Jones (Cheney, WA/Cheney) earned another spot on the Pacific West Top 10 Honor Roll for his work in the Storm's win over Dominican. He scored 17 points, collected seven rebounds and shot 62.5% (5 for 8) from the field - also had two steals. Player of the week honors went to Junior Ale of BYU-Hawaii for the second time this season.
 
COLE SCORING STRING:  Dixie State College seniors Maurice Cole (Norwalk, CA/Santa Fe) has scored in double figures in four straight games and five of the last six. He has scored 14 points twice in the streak and began the string with a career-best 22 points in a victory over CSU San Bernardino.
 
GRIFF CLEANING UP THE GLASS: Over the last seven games, senior forward Griffon Jones (Cheney, WA/Cheney) has averaged 8.1 rebounds a game to lead the Red Storm. In DSC's previous seven games, Jones eclipsed the eight-rebound mark just once – with 11       against Montana State-Billings on November 11.
 
MASSEY FEELS PENGUIN FREEZE, SCORCHING IN OTHER JANUARY GAMES: In two games against Dominican, shooting guard McKay Massey (Payson, UT/Payson) from the bottom of the net extremely hard to find. He scored a combined six points in the two games DSC split with the Penguins. Despite that, Mac has posted games of 16 and 22 points in his other January games.
 
PAYNE, THE STEADY BACK-UP: Kimball Payne (Alpine, UT/Lone Peak) has proven to be the backup point guard head coach Jon Judkins was searching for from the beginning of the season. Over the last four games, Payne has at least two rebounds and two assists in each while averaging just fewer than five points per game.
 
HOME SWEET HOME: The Burns Arena has been one of the best home court advantages in the Pacific West Conference over the past three seasons. DSC leads in winning percentage since the beginning of the 2009-2010 season with a 24-3 home record, a .889 winning percentage. Over the same time period, Grand Canyon has the most home wins with 27 (.771) and BYU-Hawaii follows with 26 wins (.838).
 
INSIDE THE RECORD BOOKS: Griffon Jones (Cheney, WA/Cheney) finds himself 50 points away from 500 for his DSC career. He also needs to average 14.3 PPG over the Storm's final 13 conference games to become the player with the highest two-year point total – currently held by Donovan Plunkett (Oroville, CA/Las Plumas) with 638 points from 2009-2011. Maurice Cole (Norwalk, CA/Santa Fe) has 136 assists in his Dixie State career. To pass Jeremiah Barnes (Compton, CA/Los Altos) with the best two-year assist total, Cole will need 80 dimes – or an average of 6.15 per contest in the regular season.
 
JUDKINS APPROACHING ANOTHER MILESTONE: Head coach Jon Judkins posted win number 100 on the Dixie State bench last season, but he approaches another milestone. Judkins has 396 career coaching victories, putting him just four wins from 400. The coach had 284 wins in 12 seasons at Snow College prior to taking over the head spot at Dixie State.
 
AROUND THE PAC WEST: Saturday night action in the PacWest saw the highest scoring contest thus far and the league-leading CBU Lancers getting another win. Chaminade bested host Hawaii Hilo 92-89 in a game that saw both teams shoot better than 53 percent from the floor. Every Chaminade starter scored in double-figures, led by Lee Bailey (24) and Bennie Murray (20). The Vulcans also had five players score more than 10 points with CJ Brown scoring 20 points in 37 minutes. BYU-Hawaii remained unbeaten in the PWC by using a big 44-27 second half en route to a 76-56 win over Academy of Art. Bracken Funk had 18 points and Junior Ale scored 16 points with 15 rebounds. Will Overton and Ameer Shamsud-din each had 15 points in the loss. Cal Baptist moved to 5-0 in league with its own 76-56 win over NDNU. Lancer center Luke Evans had 17 points and eight rebounds while Tyler Fricke led the Argos with 14 points. On Monday's schedule, ART U closes out its Hawaii road swing with Hawaii Pacific at the Blaisdell Arena.
 
TICKET INFORMATION: Tickets to DSC basketball games can be purchased at Cox Auditorium Box Office prior to game day and at the Burns Arena East Box Office one hour prior to game time. Reserved seats are $7 for center court locations. General admission tickets are priced at $5 for adults. DSC students and kids under 12 are free. Purchase advanced tickets online at tickets.dixie.edu.

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