AZUSA, Calif. – Junior forward
Mark Ogden Jr. (Spring Valley, CA/Steele Canyon) scored 16 points, including a straight away 3-pointer that tied Friday's NCAA West Region quarterfinal against Cal Poly Pomona at 60-60. But a fade-away, buzzer-beating jump shot from Terrance Drisdom, the California Collegiate Athletic Association Player of the Year, handed Dixie State a 62-60 loss.
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Senior guard
DeQuan Thompson (Las Vegas, NV/Lake Mead Christian Academy) finished with 15 points and senior forward
Zach Robbins (Upland, CA/Upland) had 10 points and six rebounds in the Red Storm's season-ending loss to the Broncos (24-6).
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Drisdom scored a game-leading 18 points for Cal Poly Pomona, connecting on 7 of 12 shots from the field.
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Dixie State closed its season with 20-8 overall record, the sixth straight season in which the Storm eclipsed the 20-win mark.
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CPP's win against Dixie State earned the Broncos a spot in the West Region semifinals on Satuday, where they will face the winner of the Azusa Pacific/Western Oregon game.
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Jordan Faison added 16 points for Cal Poly Pomona, and Daniel Rodriguez hit a trio of 3-pointer en route to 13 points. The Broncos improved their all-time record to 3-0 against the Storm, with all three contests having taken place in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Tournament.
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"What a tough way to end the game and the season," Dixie State head coach
Jon Judkins said. "This does not diminish the great year we have had."
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Cal Poly Pomona shot 44.6 percent for the game (25-56), including 14 of 31 in the second half. Dixie State finished 41.7 percent (20-48), bouncing back from a 7 of 25 performance (28 percent) from the floor in the first half.
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The Broncos led 27-24 at halftime in a 20-minute period that saw multiple scoring runs. CPP opened the game with the first seven points, only to see DSU respond with a 5-0 spurt. Despite the Storm's poor shooting to open, only 2 of the first 17 attempts fell, DSU was able to bounce back with an 11-0 spurt to close the CPP lead to one. A six-point lead was sliced in the half in the final minute on a steal and three-point play from freshman guard
Trevor Hill (Sandy, UT/Alta).
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Dixie State's opening 5-0 run in the second half secured their first lead. Ogden connected on a baseline jumper and
Mason Sawyer (West Jordan, UT/West Jordan) connected on a 3-ball from the top of the arc.
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When the Red Storm pulled ahead 50-45 with seven minutes left, DSU thought they would break their winless string against CPP.
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Turnovers, 17 in total for the game, late allowed the Broncos to get easy buckets in transition. Off a Drisdom steal, Sawyer was whistled for an intentional foul after grabbing the ball-handler from behind. Two foul shots and a subsequent dunk from Faison pushed the Bronco lead out to five, 60-55.
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Robbie Nielson (Gresham, OR/Barlow) hit two fouls shots on the ensuing possession. Drisdom dribbled the ball off his foot dealing with defensive pressure to give DSU the ball with 48 seconds.
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Ogden, left wide open at the top of the key, drained his only 3-point attempt of the season to knot the game at 60-60. Drisdom's left-angle shot that swished through the net as the buzzer sounded, kept CPP from facing overtime against DSU.
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The Red Storm came in as one of the tournament's better scoring team, averaging 78.3 points per game. Cal Poly Pomona showed off its nation-leading scoring defense (56.3 PPG) by holding DSU to its second-lowest point total in the first half.
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