Dixie State opened its season-long five-game homestand with a 67-62 Pacific West Conference victory over Azusa Pacific Saturday night in the Burns Arena. The Trailblazers have now won two-straight and eight of their last nine overall to improve to 13-5, 10-2 in PacWest play. The win also served as the 499^th-career victory for DSU Head Coach Jon Judkins.After a back-and-forth first-half battle that featured six ties and seven lead changes, the Trailblazers managed to turn a 31-30 halftime lead into a 44-37 advantage just five minutes into the second half.

Azusa Pacific (10-11/5-6 PacWest) clawed back to pull to within 46-44 after a Justin Byrd 3-pointer, but DSU answered with six-straight points on Dub Price (Draper, Utah/Alta HS) conventional three-point play and a Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS) trey to extend to its largest lead of the game at 52-44 with 11:12 remaining.

However the Trailblazers could not stretch their lead to double figures as the Cougars stayed within striking distance and would eventually pull to within a bucket at 62-60 on a Joey Schreiber foul shot with 1:29 to go.

But unlike the last meeting between the two teams, which saw a nine-point Trailblazer lead evaporate in the closing moments in an overtime loss in Azusa (Dec. 10, 2016), Dixie State hit some clutch shots down the stretch to hold off the Cougars.

Out of a DSU timeout, Brandon Simister (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) found Marcus Bradley (Anaheim, Calif./Corona del Mar HS) for a 13-foot leaner in the lane to give the Trailblazers a two-possession lead at 64-60 with 1:09 to play. Then after Dixie State got a defensive stop on the next Cougar possession, Zac Hunter (American Fork, Utah/American Fork HS) put the game on ice with a 14-foot jumper from the right elbow on another Simister dime that spotted the Trailblazers a 66-60 cushion with 30 seconds left.

"I thought our guys were tougher and we finished strong tonight," Coach Judkins said. "Once we got the ball into the high post [against APU's zone offense], Marcus [Bradley] and Zac [Hunter] hit those shots and that was huge for us.

"I loved how hard we played and I thought we defended pretty well tonight," Judkins added. "We got some big stops and got big rebounds when we needed to and we did a good job defending their top-three scorers."

Simister scored 11 of his game-high 15 points in the first half and dished out four of his game-high six assists in the second stanza. Meanwhile, Bradley poured in 12 points on 6-of-13 shooting and pulled down a co-team high seven rebounds in his first start of the season, while Price and Quincy Mathews (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) each tallied nine points off the bench. In all, every Trailblazer who played scored as part of a balanced DSU offensive attack.

Dixie State shot 41.9 percent from the floor (26-of-62), including a 5-of-18 clip (.278) from the perimeter, and finished 10-of-17 (.588) from the foul line. DSU also outrebounded APU 40-36 and forced 13 Cougars turnovers, compared to just 12 DSU miscues, though the Trailblazers only committed three turnovers in the second half.

Byrd led four Cougar players in double figures with 13 points, while Petar Kutlesic posted a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. APU hit on 42.3 percent of its shots, though the Cougars managed to connect on just 6-of-22 (.273) from beyond the arc and 12-of-21 (.571) from the line.

Dixie State continues its homestand next Saturday, Jan. 28, with date vs. Hawai'i Hilo in the Burns Arena at 7:30 p.m.