Dixie State saw its five-game winning streak come to an end Saturday night as the Trailblazers came up on the short end of a 70-59 decision to Pacific West Conference co-leader No. 8 California Baptist in the Burns Arena.

The Lancers (22-2/14-2 PacWest), who were without the services of their leading scorer and preseason PacWest player of the year Michael Smith, led wire-to-wire, turning a 28-26 halftime lead into a 49-39 advantage with 9:47 to play.

Dixie State (16-6/13-3 PacWest), which entered the night tied with CBU and Hawai'i Pacific in the league standings, got to within eight points at 53-45 after a pair of Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS) free throws with 7:19 to go. However CBU proved to be too much as the Lancers managed to extend their lead to as many as 15 points before settling for the 11-point victory.

"I thought [CBU] was the better team tonight and they came in ready to play," DSU Head Coach Jon Judkins said. "You can't come and play a team that is tied with you for first place [in the PacWest standings] and have two or three guys not there, and tonight we had that happen. What ever the reason is, I don't know, but we have to fix it because we cannot beat these kinds of teams when we're playing four-on-five."

Kyler Nielson (Cedar City, Utah/Cedar HS) led the Trailblazers with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting, including 3-of-4 from the perimeter, while Hill scored 11 of his 18 points in the first half to keep DSU within striking distance early. Hill also posted his fourth double-double of the year as he pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds to go with five assists, two steals and one block.

DSU, which suffered its first home loss of the year (10-1), struggled from the floor as the Trailblazers shot just 30.3 percent (20-of-66), which included a 5-of-15 clip (.333) from beyond the arc, and went 14-of-21 (.667) from the line. Dixie State lost despite turning the ball over a season-low four times, but did lose the battle of the boards by a 45-37 count.

Jordan Heading led all scorers with 25 points, while Kalidou Diouf added 18 points with 13 rebounds and five blocked shots. CBU hit on 26-of-56 (.464) of its shot attempts, 9-of-26 (.346) from the perimeter.

"I thought we played on our heels all night long and we weren't aggressive defensively," Judkins noted. "Give [CBU] a lot of credit, they're a good team. This one hurts but we have got to be ready to bounce back. We have four [regular season] games left and we have to play the best four games we can play."

Dixie State closes the road portion of its 2016-17 regular season slate with its annual Hawaiian gauntlet run this upcoming week on the Islands. DSU opens the trip at Hawai'i Hilo on Thursday, Feb. 15, before facing off with BYU-Hawaii for the final time in Laie on Saturday, Feb. 18. The Trailblazers will then close the trip in Honolulu on Monday, Feb. 20, with a showdown vs. PacWest co-leader Hawai'i Pacific.