Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS) led four Trailblazer starters in double figures with 22 points as Dixie State won its fourth-straight and opened Pacific West Conference play with a thrilling 82-76 overtime win over Concordia-Irvine Saturday night inside the Burns Arena.

The Trailblazers (4-3/1-0 PacWest) led 37-26 after the first 20 minutes of play, but the Eagles (4-5/1-1 PacWest) quickly erased the deficit thanks to a full-court press that led to five DSU turnovers as CUI rattled off a 17-4 run over the first three minutes of the frame to take a 43-41 lead after a Justin Davis 3-pointer.

The game see-sawed back and forth from there as both teams battled through five ties and three lead changes before Dixie State managed to take a 62-57 advantage after a Hill free throw with 3:57 to play in regulation. CUI trimmed the lead down to 62-61, but a Zac Hunter (American Fork, Utah/American Fork HS) lay-up extended the lead to 64-61 with 2:23 on the clock.

Concordia-Irvine again made it a one-point game at 65-64 on a Tad Dufelmeier lay-in with 37 seconds to go, then after a DSU timeout, Hill drew a foul and hit a pair of clutch free throws to push the lead back to three at 67-64. Dufelmeier struck again for another drive and lay-up to pull the Eagles to 67-66 with nine ticks left.

After a CUI foul, Brandon Simister (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) split a pair of free throws, which left the door open for CUI to tie or win the game in its final possession, and Dufelmeier cashed in the chance with his third runner in the paint in the closing moments to knot the game at 68-68 to force overtime.

DSU took an early lead in extra session on a Kyler Nielson (Cedar City, Utah/Cedar HS) bucket, but the Eagles countered with four consecutive points en route to a 72-70 advantage with 3:25 to go. Dixie State answered with seven-straight points – all from the foul line – as DSU scored 12 of its 14 points in OT from the charity stripe overall and outscored CUI 14-8 in the period to escape with the win.

Hill scored 12 of his 22 points from the line and finished with a game-high 12 rebounds and six assists to lead the Trailblazers. Meanwhile, Simister and Josh Fuller (Rexburg, Idaho/Madison HS) each collected 14 points apiece, and Nielson finished with a career-high 13 points, including six points in the overtime period.

Dixie State won despite committing a school single-game record 31 turnovers, including 18 miscues after the halftime intermission, which led to 19 CUI steals overall. The Trailblazers managed to offset their turnover trouble by shooting 49.1 percent (26-of-53) from the floor overall, though they managed to hit just 1-of-12 (.083) from the perimeter. DSU hit on 29-of-44 (.659) from the line, but did go 12-of-14 (.857) from the stripe in overtime, and the Trailblazers outrebounded the Eagles 56-25, including a decisive 15-4 edge on the offensive glass.

Davis tallied a game-high 24 points to lead CUI, while Dufelmeier scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half before fouling out in overtime. The Eagles shot 44.8 percent (30-of-67) from the floor, but they had their own struggles from the foul line as they connected on just 13-of-30 (.433) of their charity tosses. CUI also finished a paltry 3-of-16 (.188) from beyond the arc.

Dixie State will begin the road portion of its 2016-17 PacWest slate next weekend in southern California with a date at nationally-ranked and preseason conference favorite California Baptist on Thursday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m. (PT) in Riverside. Then DSU will head over to Azusa for a match-up at defending PacWest regular season champion Azusa Pacific on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 10 at 3 p.m. (PT).