Brandon Simister (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) scored a game-high 18 points to lead four Trailblazers in double figures as Dixie State won for the sixth time in seven games with a 77-69 Pacific West Conference victory over Notre Dame de Namur Saturday night inside the Burns Arena.

The Trailblazers (6-4/3-1 PacWest) shook off a sloppy start to race out to a 15-4 lead midway through the first half. DSU owned the double-digit lead despite committing five early turnovers, though Dixie State's defense helped offset the early miscues as NDNU (2-7/1-3 PacWest) opened the game by missing 16 of its first 18 shots.

Dixie State extended its first-half lead to as many 13 points, and turned a 36-25 halftime bulge into a 15-point advantage at 50-35 with 11:31 to play after an Austin Montgomery (Gainesville, Ga./Lakeview Academy) lay-in. The Trailblazers maintained a double-digit for most of the second stanza, but the Argonauts did not fold as NDNU slowly chipped away at the deficit, eventually pulling to within seven at 61-54 after two Korey Serna free throws with 5:07 remaining.

DSU came back with six-straight points, including a Montgomery bucket and consecutive baskets from Zac Hunter (American Fork, Utah/American Fork HS), to push the lead back to double figures at 67-54 with 3:34 remaining.

NDNU would again mount a charge as the Argonauts went on an 11-1 run over the next two minutes to make a one-possession game at 68-65 after a Lance Page score with 1:30 to go. Simister answered with a lay-in on Dixie State's next trip down the court to extend the lead to five, and the Trailblazers went on to hit seven of 10 free throws in the final moments to close out the win.

"Could you tell it was [DSU] Finals Week, that's what it felt like tonight," DSU Head Coach Jon Judkins said. "We came out like we were going through the motions instead of actually doing the things we needed to do. I thought we played really good last weekend [at California Baptist/Azusa Pacific), but tonight was not one of our better games.

"We got a win and NDNU is a good team," Judkins added. "I give them a lot of credit, they played extremely hard and they out-played us that way with their toughness and their hustle plays."

Simister hit six of his 11 shots, including a pair of 3-pointers, to go with six assists to lead the Trailblazers, while Josh Fuller (Rexburg, Idaho/Madison HS) tallied 12 points and six rebounds before fouling out with six minutes to play. Montgomery finished with a career-high 10 points on 5-of-9 shooting and tied a career-best with five boards off the bench, and Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS) added 10 points along with seven rebounds and seven assists.

Dixie State shot better than 50-percent for the third-straight game as the Trailblazers went 28-of-55 (.509) from the floor, though DSU hit on just 4-of-14 from the perimeter. The Trailblazers connected on 17-of-27 (.630) from the foul line, including 15-of-24 in the second half, and outrebounded NDNU by a 40-35 count.

"I saw some good things and saw some guys step up tonight," Judkins noted. "Austin [Montgomery] played better and I thought [Brandon] Simister played a good game tonight, and Trevor [Hill] had seven assists and took care of the ball for us. We had 19 assists and shot better than 50-percent, but our defense and  rebounding were not as good as we needed it to be, but a win's a win."

Serna led the Argonauts with 17 points and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, while Page added 16 points. NDNU shot 39.7 percent (25-of-63) from the floor and 82.4 percent (14-of-17) from the line.

Dixie State will close out the 2016 calendar year this Monday night with a date against Point Loma in the Burns Arena starting at 7:30 p.m.