Despite a furious second-half rally, Dixie State's men's basketball team could not cool off a hot-shooting BYU-Hawai'i squad as the Seasiders handed the Storm a 95-83 loss late Tuesday night in Laie, Hawai'i.

Dixie State (9-8/6-5 PacWest) jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead after consecutive lay-ups from Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS) and Robbie Nielson (Gresham, Ore./Barlow HS). However that lead was short-lived as BYU-H (11-6/8-4 PacWest) outscored the Storm 24-6, including a 17-2 stretch, to race out to a 24-10 lead with 10:04 to play in the opening frame. The Seasiders hit four 3-pointers in the run, including back-to-back treys from Justin Yamzon.

DSU came back with six quick points from Josh Fuller (Rexburg, Idaho/Madison HS) and a 3-pointer from Hill to pull to within nine at 28-19. BYU-H pushed its lead back to as many as 12 points and led 39-28 with 3:06 remaining, but the Storm managed to trim the deficit to seven at 42-35 at the halftime break.

Fuller came out with the hot hand to start the second stanza as he scored seven early points, which offset a pair of Seasider 3-pointers as DSU got it down to a two-possession game at 50-46 with 15:08 to play. BYU-Hawai'i would respond with six-straight points as part of a 9-3 spurt as the Siders pushed the advantage back to double digits at 59-49 at the 11:58 mark.

Dixie State did not back down as Mason Sawyer (West Jordan, Utah/West Jordan HS) sparked another Storm rally as the senior hit a pair of 3-pointers to key a 12-2 run over the next 2:30, which pulled DSU even at 61-61. Then after a BYU-H bucket, Mark Ogden Jr. (Spring Valley, Calif./Steele Canyon HS) converted on a conventional 3-point play, while Fuller added a lay-in, and the Storm regained the lead at 66-63 with 8:24 to go.

However BYU-H would not be denied as Seasiders answered with a Justin Park three-point play, which was followed by a Cory Lange 3-pointer that gave them the lead right back at 69-66. Then the flood gates opened as the Siders proceeded to hit four more treys and outscored the Storm 27-11 over a span of seven-plus minutes to extend the lead to 90-77 and BYU-H never looked back.

"[BYU-Hawai'i] is a real good team, they play really good here [at home]," Coach Judkins said. "I thought when we got that [second half] lead we relaxed. Like I told the team in the locker room, they didn't beat us, we beat ourselves.

"To come on this trip and win two out of three [wins at Hawai'i Hilo and Chaminade] we'll take that," Judkins added. "We had a chance to get all three. It was a tough game, we fought as hard as we could. We didn't play one of our better [games] but give [BYU-H] a lot of credit I thought they played really well. They wanted it more than we did and I think we were hoping to get it instead of going out and getting it.

"This one hurts, it stings and we hope that we learn from it and hope we learn that we can't beat good teams on their home court when you don't come ready to play," said Judkins.

Fuller finished with a career-high tying 25 points on 10-of-15 shooting, with 17 of his points coming in the second half, and he pulled down a game-high eight rebounds. Meanwhile Sawyer matched his season-high with 19 points with four 3-pointers, including 14 second-half points with three treys, and Hill chipped in  17 points.

"I thought Mason [Sawyer] played extremely hard tonight," Judkins noted. "The way Mason played and the way Josh [Fuller] played was big. Josh played well and he played physical and he did some good things."

Dixie State shot 42.6 percent (29-of-68) for the game, including a 45.7 clip (16-of-35) in the second half, and was 6-of-16 (.375) from the perimeter. DSU also hit on 19-of-22 (.864) from the line and outrebounded BYU-H 35-33.

BYU-H blistered the nets as the Seasiders shot 61.8 percent (34-of-55) on the night, which included a red-hot 70.4 percent (19-of-27) in the second stanza. The Seasiders also hit 50 percent (12-of-24) of their three-point shots. Lange led four Siders in double figures with 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting with six 3-pointers, while Friel added 20 on 7-of-11 from the floor, and Park connected on 7-of-10 of his shot to finish with 18 points.

Dixie State returns home for five-straight games inside the Burns Arena, starting with a date vs. Hawai'i Pacific this Saturday, Jan. 30, at 7:30 p.m. As part of the game, DSU will welcome Rocky, the Denver Nuggets' mascot, who will perform with Big Dee throughout the evening.