Late comeback pushed DSU to road win over ART U

Storm falter early, but capture 20th win over Knights

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SAN FRANCISCO – There's something about a rematch in the Bay Area.

For the second straight season, Dixie State had to come back from a late deficit to defeat Academy of Art in Pacific West Conference play. This year, the Red Storm outscored ART U 14-6 over the final 3:31 to win 82-80 in a game played at the Main Gym on the campus of San Francisco State.

The score matched Dixie State's comeback effort against the Knights at the historic Kezar Pavilion during the 2013 season.

Kimball Payne (Alpine, UT) scored a career-high 19 points for Dixie State (20-5/14-5 PacWest), while Zach Robbins (Upland, CA)had 12 points and 13 rebounds for his 14^th season double double.

Dixie State spurted out to an 8-4 lead, but the efficiency of the Academy of Art (6-19/4-14) 2-3 zone coupled with three Urban Knights scoring in double figures had the home team up by as many as 14 points in the opening half. A late 7-3 run for the Storm made the halftime score 47-40, despite Academy of Art netting 60 percent of their shots.

Robbins and Payne went to work in the opening minutes of the second half scoring all but two of the Storm's 14 points that brought DSU even with the Knights at 54-54. With a Mason Sawyer (West Jordan, UT) 3-pointer, the Storm took a 57-56 advantage.

Alexis Moore scored seven straight points to seize momentum back for the Urban Knights. Moore, a former standout at Long Beach (CA) Poly who played as a freshman for the USC Trojans, lit up the scoreboard to pace all scorers 29 points.

ART U lead by four, 72-68, with 3:31 to play. Dixie State turned up the defensive intensity and made clutch offensive plays. Head coach Jon Judkins credited his team's effort in their defensive zone and rebounding as the major turning point in the second half.

Robbins sparked an 8-0 run with two free throws. Payne followed with a lay-in and assisted on back-to-back buckets from DeQuan Thompson (Las Vegas, NV) for a 76-73 lead.

From there, it was a battle from the charity stripe. Thompson and Dalton Groskreutz (Santa Clara, UT) combined to hit six foul shots without a miss while Alex Carmon missed once for ART U to preserve the Dixie State win.

The Red Storm won for the first time this year shooting less than 40 percent from the floor (27-70, 38.6 percent). After a below average 10-of-17 performance from the line in the first half, DSU connected on 14-of-15 in the second half to finish out the game at 75 percent. Dixie State bested the Knights in the rebounding department, 42-36 – which included 17 offensive boards.

Thompson joined Payne and Robbins in double figures with 17 points. Jordan Rex (Saint George, UT) came off the bench with nine points and nine rebounds.

Dixie State closes out the regular season on Saturday, March 1, with a home contest against California Baptist. The PacWest regular-season champs enter as one of the best team's in the West Region. Tip time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. inside the Burns Arena.

Saturday is Senior Night, the final home contest for Payne, Groskreutz, Curtis Papenfuss (Happy Valley, OR), Landon Clegg (Cedar Hills, UT) and Louis Garrett (Saint George, UT).

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