[PREVIEW] 15th-ranked Storm on the road in Wolves' den

Dixie State takes 3-0 record to Monmouth, Sat. game at Western Oregon

Tweet #DixieMBB



MEDIA INFORMATION
Date	Sat., Nov. 23 \| 3 p.m. MT (2 p.m. PT)
Location	WOU New P.E. Building (2,473) Monmouth, Ore.
Tickets	Purchase Tickets
Radio	ESPN SportsRadio 106.1 FM \| Dixie State All-Access
Radio Talent	John Potter (play-by-play)
Live Video	Western Oregon Video
Live Video	Western Oregon Live Stats
Game Notes	Dixie State \| Western Oregon
Twitter	@DixieAthletics #DixieMBB
DIXIE STATE RED STORM
Record	3-0
Ranking	15th NABC
Head Coach	Jon Judkins
	Career: 442-204 (20th year)
	DSU Record: 148-81 (9th year)
WESTERN OREGON WOLVES
Record	2-2
Ranking	NR
Head Coach	Brady Bergeson
	Career: 30-28 (3rd year)
	WOU Record: Same

DSU FACES WESTERN OREGON: The Dixie State men's basketball team hits the road for the second consecutive week. This trip is for just one game – Saturday afternoon in Monmouth against Western Oregon. Tip time is set for 2 p.m. Pacific (3 p.m. Mountain) from the New PE Building on the WOU campus. The game will be broadcast on ESPN SportsRadio 106.1 FM and Dixie State All-Access online with John Potter calling the play-by-play. WOU provides live video and stats at their GameCentral portal at client.stretchinternet.com/client/wou.portal.

HIGHEST RANKING EVER!: After two weeks of play in the 2013-14 regular season and a victory over one of the top ranked teams in the nation, Dixie State men's hoops entered the Nov. 19 edition of the National Association of Basketball Coaches/Division II poll at No. 15. It is the highest ranking achieved by the Red Storm in program history. Previously, DSU finished the 2012-13 season at No. 18 before entering the NCAA West Regional. Dixie State is 3-0 on the season and garnered 174 votes to be the highest debuting team in the first official poll. The Red Storm was in the group of "Others Receiving Votes" in the preseason poll. Dixie State's win over Seattle Pacific, then the second-ranked squad in the country, built instant credibility with the coaches voting in the poll.

LAST TIME OUT – STORM BEAT NO. 2 SPU IN OVERTIME: Down two points with 3.3 seconds remaining in regulation, Kimball Payne (Alpine, UT/Lone Peak) (Alpine, UT/Lone Peak) took an inbound pass, blazed down the court, and connected with the equalizing lay-in to send Saturday's matchup with Seattle Pacific into overtime. With the same circumstances in the extra period, All-American guard David Downs for SPU missed an open lay-up to give Dixie State a 90-88 win over the second-ranked Falcons in the final game of the Sodexo Tip-Off Classic. Dixie State remains unbeaten on the year at 3-0 while the nationally ranked Falcons dropped to 4-1. DeQuan Thompson (Las Vegas, NV/Lake Mead Christian Academy) (Las Vegas, NV/Lake Mead Christian Academy), the classic MVP, netted a career-high 21 points in 41 minutes. Three others notched double-figures: Zach Robbins (Upland, CA/Upland) (Upland, CA/Upland) with 16, Dalton Groskreutz (Santa Clara, UT/Snow Canyon) (Santa Clara, UT/Snow Canyon) with 13 and Louis Garrett (Saint George, UT/Pine View) (Saint George, UT/Pine View) with 12. The Red Storm opened early 6-2 and 10-4 leads. SPU took its first advantage at the 8:51 mark on a Mitch Penner jumper. Robbie Nielson (Gresham, OR/Barlow) (Gresham, OR/Barlow) nailed a 3-pointer at the 5-minute mark for a six-point lead, 30-24. The Falcons rallied for seven straight points. Mason Sawyer (West Jordan, UT/West Jordan) (West Jordan, UT/West Jordan) hit a jumper in the final seconds to close out a tight first half in Dixie State's favor, 43-40. Knotted at 47-47 early in the second half, Nielson scored on a lay-up while being fouled and Robbins hit a jumper for a 5-0 spurt. SPU responded with a 7-0 run, including a three-ball from Patrick Simon. The pivotal swing came with 2:50 left in regulation. With Dixie State down 68-83, Thompson hit a 3-pointer. At the same time, Groskreutz was pushed down setting the screen that freed Thompson to draw a foul. DSU earned the double bonus on SPU's tenth team foul. Groskreutz hit both freebies and erased the Falcons' advantage. In the final minute of regulation, Robbins completed a three-point play for a DSU lead at 73-72. Simon drained a triple nine seconds later. Garrett drove to the hoop and drew a foul – his two charity shots tied the game at 75-75. Downs earned two free throws being fouled with 3.3 seconds and hit the pair for a 77-75 lead. Payne sent the game to overtime with his best Tyus Edney impression, beating the clock with a left-handed lay-in off the glass. After SPU hit two opening shots in overtime, Dixie State built an 85-81 lead with a 6-0 surge. Garrett hit two free throws, Payne streaked to the hoop for a lay-in and Thompson cashed in two charity shots during the 1:17 string. Down five and in need of a basket, Downs connected from beyond the arc for three. Groskreutz missed two foul shots with five seconds left, allowing SPU one final chance. Downs passed up on a three-ball for the win and drove to the right side. He beat every defender, but missed the shot off the glass to send the game to double overtime. Dixie State survived shooting 65.6 percent from the line (21-32) while the Falcons missed just once (20-21) en route to a 95.2 percent clip. The Red Storm balanced out the scoring hitting 31 of 58 shots (53 percent) from the field and 7 of 12 (58.3 percent) from distance. Downs led all scorers with 34 points and Cory Hutson added 24 for Seattle Pacific.

STORM PICKED TO WIN, ROBBINS HONORED:

Dixie State was picked as the preseason favorite to win the Pacific West Conference, and Zach Robbins (Upland, CA/Upland) (Upland, CA/Upland) was selected as the preseason Player of the Year according to a coaches' vote released Thursday, Nov. 7, by the league. Dalton Groskreutz (Santa Clara, UT/Snow Canyon) (Santa Clara, UT/Snow Canyon) was also selected on the All-PacWest Preseason Team. The Red Storm received nine of 13 first-place votes to take the top spot with 165 points. Fresno Pacific (136) edged BYU-Hawaii (135) for second place while both teams received a first-place vote. Chaminade ranked fourth in the vote followed by Azusa Pacific, California Baptist and Hawai'i Pacific to round out the top half of the predicted order. Dixie State was the only school with two players voted to the Preseason All-PacWest squad. The other members honored by the league were Lee Baily from Chaminade, Malcolm Griffin from Fresno Pacific, Troy Leaf from Azusa Pacific, DeAndre Medlock from BYU-Hawaii and Malte Ziegenhagen from Hawai'i Pacific.

THE RETURNERS:

> Landon Clegg (Cedar Hills, UT/Lone Peak), a 6-4 combo guard/forward, is back for his senior season after missing last year rehabbing a knee injury. The Cedar Hills, Utah, native was the 2007 PacWest Freshman of the Year.

> Dalton Groskreutz (Santa Clara, UT/Snow Canyon), the 6-6 forward from Santa Clara, Utah, returns for his senior season after having a great junior campaign. He averaged 11.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists for the season while shooting 80-percent from the charity stripe. Groskreutz was a second-team all-PacWest honoree.

> Robbie Nielson (Gresham, OR/Barlow), the 6-4 guard from Gresham, Ore., played 12 games for Dixie State last year. He averaged 1.5 points per game.

> Curtis Papenfuss (Happy Valley, OR/Clackamas), a 6-8 forward from Happy Valley, Ore., appeared in 27 of the 28 DSU games last year. Papenfuss had a season-high 20 points off the bench at Azusa Pacific.

> Kimball Payne (Alpine, UT/Lone Peak), a 6-0 senior from Alpine, Utah, is expected to be the returning starter at point guard for Dixie State. Payne ranked third in the PacWest with 5.0 assists per game.

> DeQuan Thompson (Las Vegas, NV/Lake Mead Christian Academy), the 6-2 shooting guard from Las Vegas, expects to crack the starting lineup this year. Thompson finished last year strong to post a 9.2-point per game average.

> Braden Saunders (Morgan, UT/Morgan), the 6-3 guard from Morgan, Utah, returns to DSU after serving a two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He redshirted for the Storm prior to his mission.

THE NEWCOMERS:

> Nate Ensign (American Fork, UT/American Fork), a 6-9 center, is a true freshman from American Fork, Utah. Ensign just returned from a mission.

> Louis Garrett (Saint George, UT/Pine View), the 6-6 senior forward from St. George, transferred from San Jose State. Garrett averaged 6.9 points and 2.3 rebounds in mainly a reserve role for the Spartans last year.

> Darius Matthews, a 6-8 junior center from Long Beach, Calif., transfers from Cerritos College. Matthews sat out last year after previously committing at California Baptist.

> Jordan Rex (Saint George, UT/Pine View), the 6-9 hometown product from St. George, will play center for the Red Storm. Last year, Rex redshirted at Weber State.

> Mason Sawyer (West Jordan, UT/West Jordan), the 5-10 sophomore guard from West Jordan, Utah, will likely start the season backing up Payne at point guard. Sawyer signed to play at Boise State after a stellar career at West Jordan HS. He transferred to Snow College before embarking on a church mission.

IN THE RECORD BOOKS: Four Dixie State players are moving up the career record book ages in multiple stats. Senior guard Kimball Payne (Alpine, UT/Lone Peak) had four assists against Colorado Mesa to pass McKay Massey (Payson, UT/Payson) and become the DSU all-time leader. Payne also needs one steal to get into fourth place past Maurice Cole, and eight steals to move into third ahead of Dan Stock. Junior forward Zach Robbins (Upland, CA/Upland), already the DSU leader in career blocks, moved in to seventh place on the all-time scoring list during the SPU tournament – he needs 14 points to pass Donovan Plunkett for sixth place and 119 points to pass Ben Hartman for fifth. He needs 10 rebounds to become the all-time leader past current DSU assistant Ryan Sanchez and four offensive rebounds to get to No. 1 past Derek Owen (St George, UT/Dixie). Senior forward Dalton Groskreutz (Santa Clara, UT/Snow Canyon) passed Hartman for fourth on the career-scoring list and needs 89 points to move into third place past McKay Massey (Payson, UT/Payson). Dalton needs 28 field goals to move third place, ahead of Massey. Seven makes from beyond the arc moves Groskreutz into sixth place in front of Dan Stock. In free throws made, he needs one to pass Jones for seventh place, two freebies to get into sixth place past Cole, and 17 free throws for fifth place past Kasey Winters. Dalton passes Andy Palmer for ninth place and Winters in eighth in rebounding over the SPU tourney – he needs 17 rebounds to pass Hartman for seventh and 48 boards to claim sixth ahead of Massey. With one blocked shot, Groskreutz passes Troy Randall for ninth place and two swats will notch eighth place past Nick Howard. Junior guard DeQuan Thompson (Las Vegas, NV/Lake Mead Christian Academy) needs three 3-point field goals to pass Bowie Jeffs for ninth on the career list and 10 makes to get into eighth place ahead of Johnny Little.

• WESTERN OREGON WOLVES

> The Wolves are 2-2 on the year after splitting wins and losses at a pair of non-conference tournaments. WOU traveled to Hawaii for the PacWest/GNAC Challenge and lost to Chaminade 82-73 before beating UH Hilo 76-72. Last week, the Wolves downed nationally-ranked Cal Poly Pomona 70-65 before losing 71-59 to CSU Dominguez Hills in a tournament at APU.

> Western Oregon was picked to finish sixth in the GNAC and forward Andy Avgi was named preseason All-GNAC. Avgi ranked fourth in the conference in scoring (16.2) and field goal percentage (57.7) and also grabbed 5.1 rebounds per contest in earning GNAC Freshman of the Year and honorable mention all-conference honors.

> Brady Bergeson enters his third year in Monmouth. He has compiled a 30-28 record for WOU.

LAST TIME VS. WOU, 2008: The Western Oregon men's basketball team earned a season-opening win over Dixie State 79-71. Sam Kelly had 22 points on 7-of-14 shooting to lead four Wolves in double-figures. Freshman Blair Wheadon had 17 points and Mike McLaughlin added 14. Travis Kuhns had 10 rebounds to go along seven assists to lead Western Oregon in both categories. He also scored all 10 of his points in the second half as he posted a double-double in the victory. This was a tightly fought contest by both teams with seven ties and 14 lead-changes in the game. Western Oregon did not have a free throw until the 14:38 mark in the second half but then went 16-of-17 for the rest of the game as it outscored Dixie State 39-28 the rest of the half. The Wolves controlled the paint as it won the battle of the boards 42-25 and outscored Dixie State 19-6 on second chance points and had six blocks to Dixie's zero. The Wolves trailed 32-26 at halftime as Dixie State closed out the first half on a 9-2 run. Western Oregon committed 13 turnovers in the first half compared to Dixie's five but went 4of-8 from three point range and used a 21-12 rebounding advantage to stay in the game. After Dixie State used a 10-2 run to take its largest lead of the game at 50-41. Western Oregon responded with a 12-0 run to take the lead at 53-50. The two teams would then have four more lead changes and another tie. before WOU went on a 7-0 run at the 2:44 mark for a lead it would not relinquish on its way to the 78-71 victory. WOU shot 54.8 percent from the field (17-31) in the second half compared to a 39.3 mark (11-28) in the first frame. The Wolves' defense was key at during its 7-0 run in the second half as it got blocks from Kelly and Kuhns and a steal from Kuhns as to go up eight points with just over a minute remaining in the game. Dixie State was led by Ryan Sanchez's 17 points and Dalton Groskruetz's 16 points.

Print Friendly Version