Brandon Simister (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) led seven Trailblazers in double figures with 15 points as Dixie State wrapped up its two-game exhibition slate with a 102-64 victory over Whittier College Friday in the Burns Arena.

DSU never trailed as the Trailblazers score the first seven points of the game, then used a decisive 16-3 run to turn an 11-7 lead into a 27-10 advantage after a pair of Dub Price (Draper, Utah/Alta HS) free throws midway through the stanza. Dixie State led 50-31 at the intermission and never saw its lead dip below 20 points in the second half on its way to the exhibition win.

Simister connected on 3-of-7 from beyond the arc and 6-of-6 at the line to lead a balanced DSU scoring attack, while freshman guard Tarik Cool chipped in 12 points off the bench on 4-of-7 shooting. Starters Quincy Mathews (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) and Isaiah Clark chipped in 11 points apiece, while the DSU bench accounted for 61 of DSU's 102 points as Wade Miller and Austin Montgomery each finished with 11 points, and Zac Hunter (American Fork, Utah/American Fork HS) poured in 10 points.

DSU shot 44.3 percent (31-of-70) from the floor, including a 56.0 clip (14-of-25) in the second half, and hit on 7-of-17 (.412) from the perimeter. The Trailblazers also connected on 33-of-43 from the line (.767) and outrebounded the Poets by a 75-28 margin, which included a 27-7 edge on the offensive glass. Mathews finished with a double-double as he pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds, while junior Julien Ducree collected 11 boards to go with five points and a game-high three blocks.

"We had some size advantage on [Whittier], which allowed us to work on our defense," DSU Head Coach Jon Judkins said. "At times our defense was pretty good, which led to some easy baskets. We didn't shoot well in the first half, but we rebounded really good, then in the second half we managed to shoot a little better.

Poet guard Louis Kurihara led all scorers with 20 points thanks to 6-of-11 from beyond the arc. DSU held Whittier to 27.4 percent (20-of-73) from the field overall.

"I thought it was good to get out and run," Judkins added. "Some of these guys really haven't played together, so we were finally able to find out what each player can do and what their strengths are. I was happy with the effort and everybody got a lot of minutes, which was nice to see."

The Trailblazers will officially open the 2017-18 regular season with seven-straight away from home, beginning with an appearance at the 2017 CCAA/PacWest Challenge next weekend in Pomona, Calif. DSU will square off against host Cal Poly Pomona on Friday, Nov. 10, followed by a date against UC San Diego on Saturday, Nov. 11.