ST. GEORGE, Utah – Usually a recipe for disaster, the Dixie State men's basketball team shot 37.5 percent from the field and 54 percent from the free throw line. Monday night in the Burns Arena, nonetheless, the Storm held visiting Hawai'i Pacific to a 27 percent clip while getting big rebounding performances from junior forward Mark Ogden Jr. (Spring Valley, CA/Steele Canyon) and senior forward Zach Robbins (Upland, CA/Upland) to earn a 57-50 Pacific West Conference victory.
 
The posts combined for 23 of Dixie State's 47 overall rebounds. Ogden had a career-best 14 rebounds with six coming off the offensive glass. Robbins had nine boards to go along side his team-high 18 points.
 
Dixie State (17-6, 15-3 PacWest) scored the first 11 points of the game and led by as many as 16 points (18-2) midway through the first half. Junior guard Robbie Nielson (Gresham, OR/Barlow) used a pair of steals in the opening minutes to score four fast break points, including a slam dunk for the opening bucket of the game. The Storm shot over 60 percent from the floor during the foundational run.
 
Undaunted by a hostile crowd and a sizable deficit, Hawaii Pacific (14-10, 9-9 PacWest) rode the outside shooting of Justin Long to cut Dixie State's lead to 24-23 at halftime. Long had 15 points in a 10-minute span that integrated three 3-point baskets.
 
HPU continued its pressure early in the second half and took a three-point lead, 37-34, with 13 minutes left in regulation.
 
Thompson, Robbins and Mason Sawyer (West Jordan, UT/West Jordan) carried the offensive load for DSU in a 12-3 run ending under the eight-minute mark. Five consecutive points from Thompson, a driving lay-in and corner-ball 3-pointer, gave DSU a lead by one. Long immediately responded with a triple of the subsequent HPU possession for the last lead the Sharks would hold.
 
Dixie State did not flourish from the free throw line overall, but when needed the 15-foot shots would fall. Sawyer and Ogden reclaimed the momentum for DSU hitting three of four charity shots. Two bits of thievery gave Sawyer a fast break bucket and Zach Robbins (Upland, CA/Upland) an offensive rebound put-back for a 46-40 lead.
 
A DSU three-point cushion with fewer than four minutes to play got a resounding helper off another transition look. After HPU missed a lay-up on one end, Thompson corralled the miss and sprinted down the middle of the floor. AS he reached the charity line, Thompson dished right to an open Robbins for a baseline slam-dunk that made the crowd go berserk.
 
Thompson provided the coup de grace on a steal with 13 seconds on the clock. Instead of slamming home what would have been enough of a dagger, he smartly weaved across the DSU frontcourt before HPU decided to finally foul 10 second later. Thompson calmly sank the freebies to solidify the seven-point win.
 
Sawyer and Nielson combined for six of 11 DSU steals while Robbins had four of the six team blocks.
 
Dixie State heads to central California for its final road trip of the regular season. The Storm plays at Fresno Pacific on Saturday afternoon at 5:30 p.m. MT. Coverage from the FPU Special Event will include FM radio at 106.1 ESPN on the dial and video courtesy of FPU on the DSU Athletics website.