Senior Mark Ogden Jr. (Spring Valley, Calif./Steele Canyon HS) led four Storm players in double figures with a career-high tying 22 points as Dixie State opened 2016 with a 90-81 Pacific West Conference victory over Chaminade Tuesday night in the Burns Arena.

Dixie State (5-5/2-2 PacWest) shook of a sluggish start to race out to a 43-27 halftime lead as the Storm used a 15-1 run over the final 4:35 of the frame to turn a two-point game into a 16-point cushion. Ogden Jr. scored 12 first-half points, while the DSU defense held the high-scoring Silverswords (5-7/3-2 PacWest) to just 24.2 percent shooting (8-of-33) in the frame.

DSU pushed the advantage to as many as 17 points on a couple of occasions early in the second stanza, but Chaminade would mount a rally, hitting on nine of its first 13 shots, to cut the deficit to 61-54 with 10:48 to play.

Dixie State answered with a 10-5 spurt to extend its lead back to double-digits at 71-59, thanks in part to consecutive 3-pointers from sophomore Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS). However the Silverswords remained hot from field, using a 13-4 run over the next four minutes to pull to within three at 75-72 with 5:10 to go.

Josh Fuller (Rexburg, Idaho/Madison HS) and Brandon Simister (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) keyed another DSU spurt, this one an 8-2 stretch that included an Ogden Jr. lay-in and an offensive board and putback from Robbie Nielson (Gresham, Ore./Barlow HS), to push the lead back to nine points at 83-74 with 2:49 remaining.

Chaminade would pull to within four points at 83-79 with 48 second left, but the Storm put the game on ice when Hill beat the press and found Ogden Jr. alone in the paint for a lay-in. DSU then went 3-of-4 from the foul line to ensure the victory.

"It was good effort [tonight], again when you play a team like [Chaminade] you can never relax," DSU Head Coach Jon Judkins said. "It's a good win against a good team.

"The last four minutes of the first half [15-1 run] was the best we played all season," Coach Judkins noted. "We had the four-minute stretch [in the second half] where we were up five and we finished, where the last couple games we haven't done that."

Ogden Jr.'s 22 points matched his career-high he scored almost a year-to-the-day last season at Chaminade, while his 16 rebounds was one off his career-best of 17 he set earlier this season in a PacWest win at Point Loma last month. Simister, who had missed the last two games due to injury, came back with 16 points, including 12 in the second half, while Hill added 14 points with six rebounds, four assists and a career-high three blocked shots. Nielson also came up big on both ends of the court as he poured in 11 points with seven boards, but he also drew three Chaminade offensive charge calls and picked off a game-high three steals.

Dixie State shot 44.4 percent from the floor (32-of-72), including a .471 clip (16-of-34) in the second half, which helped offset Chaminade's hot shooting in the frame. DSU went 4-of-14 (.286) from the perimeter and hit on 22-of-28 (.786) from the line. The Storm also outrebounded the Silverswords 50-39, including a career-high 11-rebound effort off the bench from junior Zac Hunter (American Fork, Utah/American Fork HS), and had 16 assists to just 12 turnovers, with senior Mason Sawyer (West Jordan, Utah/West Jordan HS) and Hill each dishing out four dimes.

Chaminade came into the game hitting on better than 40-percent of its 3-point attempts, but the Storm defense held the Swords to just 6-of-27 (.222) from beyond the arc, though Chaminade did do some damage in the paint as 38 of the Swords 80 points came from the low blocks. CU shot 21-of-35 (.600) in the second half to finish at 42.6 percent for the game. Kuany Kuany led five Chaminade players in double figures with 16 points.

Dixie State continues PacWest play this weekend as the Storm travels to SoCal to face Azusa Pacific this Thursday, Jan. 7, at 7:30 p.m. (PT). DSU will also face conference newcomer Concordia on Saturday, Jan. 9, at 7:30 p.m. (PT), in Irvine.