SAN DIEGO, Calif. - Four players scored in double figures and Taylor Mann (Castle Dale, UT/Emery) and Kaylah Miller (San Diego, CA/La Jolla Country Day) both recorded double-doubles to lead a comeback to beat Point Loma Nazarene 71-67 in the Dixie State women's basketball PacWest opener.

Mann recorded 14 points and pulled down 10 rebounds while Miller poured in 14 points and dished out 10 assists. The Red Storm (2-3, 1-0) came back from a 10-point first-half deficit to win it. Brianna Jessop (Hyrum, UT/Mountain Crest) led all DSU scorers with 15 points on a 6 of 6 night from the field while Chermayne Moore (Pinole, CA/Hercules) chipped in 12 points.

"That's a great way to start conference play with a big win on the road," head coach Jenny Thigpin said. "The team played well together. If we continue to stay together as a unit we will be hard to beat."

The Red Storm shot 46.0 percent and had 20 assists on 29 makes from the field. DSU ramped up the defense in the second half and forced Point Loma (1-6, 0-1) to take bad shots, shooting just 26.5 percent in the second half after 50 percent in the first half.

Point Loma heated up early and built up a 10-point lead at one point and led 39-31 at the break. Miller had nine points and six rebounds before halftime.,

After halftime, Dixie State trimmed the lead down to two points and continued to battle.

Right out of the halftime break DSU cut the lead to just 40-39 but then surrendered a run to the Sea Lions to fall back by as many as six again.

With six minutes to go, a 12-3 run from the Red Storm gave them their first lead at 63-57 since midway through the first half.

Point Loma wasn't going to roll over and took the DSU lead back down to two points with 3:01 to go.

Mann hit a turnaround jumper with just over a minute to go to make it 68-63 to give the Red Storm some breathing room. On the other end however, PLNU answered with a triple to cut it back to two points.

The Sea Lions got a stop and had a chance to tie it but couldn't get closer than a one-point ball game. The Red Storm got two offensive rebounds after missed free-throws down the stretch and Miller finally sunk two in a row to seal the 71-67 win.

Dixie State heads to Riverside to take on Cal Baptist on Saturday at 5 p.m. PT.


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