(PACWEST TV HIGHLIGHTS)

Behind a career-high 28 points from tournament Most Outstanding Player Brandon Simister (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS), No. 18 Dixie State erased a 17-point first-half deficit to rally for a 66-64 victory over No. 18/19 California Baptist in the championship game of the 2018 Pacific West Conference Tournament Saturday in the CBU Events Center.

With the victory, Dixie State earned the conference's automatic bid to the 2018 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament, the program's eighth-overall trip to the "Big Dance" overall. In addition, the Trailblazers pushed their NCAA-era record winning streak to 17-straight games and broke the program's four-year single-season wins record as DSU improved to 23-6 overall.

A possible Trailblazer PacWest tournament title looked bleak in the early going as CBU (25-5) shot lights out from the perimeter, thanks to the hot hand of guard Matt Hubbard, who nailed five of his first six 3-point attempts, which helped the Lancers turn an 11-10 lead into a 34-17 advantage with 4:06 to play in the opening half. Hubbard hit four of those treys as part of a 20-4 run that helped give his side the early double-digit advantage.

Dixie State managed to stay within striking distance in large part due to Simister, who poured in 14 first-half points to keep the Trailblazers in the game. Simister, who was plagued by foul trouble in DSU's semifinal win over Concordia-Irvine on Friday night, connected on 4-of-4 from the floor with two 3-pointers in the frame and helped spur an 11-2 DSU rally with five points as Dixie State pulled to within 36-28 at the intermission.

DSU carried that momentum back out of the locker room as Zac Hunter (American Fork, Utah/American Fork HS) scored in the paint on the Trailblazers' opening possession of the second half to cut the deficit to 36-30. However CBU quickly snatched the momentum right back with back-to-back buckets from Gabe Taylor and Cory Lange, while Jason Todd nailed a 3-pointer as part of a 9-4 spurt to push the Lancer lead back to double-digits at 45-34 with 15:59 remaining.

Dixie State then turned up the defensive intensity, which in turn ignited the offense, as the Trailblazers rattled off a 20-6 run over an eight-plus minute span, to take its second lead of the night at 54-51 with 8:06 to play. Simister hit a trey and was fouled on another 3-point attempt as he accounted for 10 of DSU's 20 points in the run. Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS) also got into the act as he added five more, including a big three-point play conversion, and Clark capped the rally with his lone bucket of the night that spotted DSU the three-point edge.

Meanwhile, the Trailblazer defense limited CBU to just 3-of-10 from the floor and forced three Lancer miscues over that stretch as Dixie State led for the first time since 4-2 early in the first half.

Jordan Heading finally stopped the DSU run with a 3-pointer to draw the Lancers even, then Dejon Davis hit a pair of free throws to put CBU back on top at 56-54 with 6:41 left. That lead would not last long as Kyler Nielson (Cedar City, Utah/Cedar HS) tied the game on a tip-in on DSU's next possession.

From there the game belonged to Hill as the newly-crowned PacWest Player of the Year scored the next eight DSU points on four driving lay-ins, the last of which gave Dixie State its largest lead of the game at 64-59 with 1:53 remaining.

Heading drew CBU to within 64-61 with a pair of free throws, then after a both teams swapped empty possessions, Heading went back to the line with a chance to pull the Lancers closer with 11 seconds left.

However Heading would miss both charity tosses and Simister managed to secure the long rebound and streaked down the court before being fouled with six seconds to play. Simister went on to hit both free throws to give DSU a two-possession lead, and though Todd hit CBU's final trey of the night, it came at the final horn as the Trailblazers stormed the court in celebration.

"This was a fun night," DSU Head Coach Jon Judkins said. "We didn't get to cut down the nets at Point Loma [Feb. 24], we didn't get to cut down the nets at Biola [Feb. 22], but we sure had a fun time cutting them down tonight. We're happy that we're going [to the NCAA Tournament], it was one of our goals to get there, and now we've got to make some noise there." 

"Give [CBU] credit, they came out on fire, they were moving the ball and they were executing [in the first half]," Judkins added. "I thought if we could get [the deficit] down to 10, we felt that we could come back at any time with our defense. We really focused on those 'four-minute battles' that we've talked about all year long. There isn't a 20-point play or a 17-point play, we got to take it four minutes at a time, win the four minutes by four or six points, and win the next four minutes by four of six points, that's how you chip into [a deficit] and that how you come back. Our guys did a great job at that. We found a way to win."

Simister led all scorers with his 28 points, which came on 8-of-12 shooting (3-of-5 3FG) and a perfect 9-of-9 at the line. Meanwhile Hill scored 15 of his 19 points in the second half and pulled down a game-high seven rebounds on his way to all-tournament honors. Clark also collected all-tourney recognition as he tied Hill with seven boards to go with two points, two assists and two blocks. Clark, along with Austin Montgomery (Lilburn, Ga./Lakeview Academy), combined to hold CBU's leading scorer Kalidou Diouf to just nine points on 3-of-9 shooting.

Dixie State shot an even 40.0 percent (24-of-60) from the floor, but did hit on 15-of-18 from the foul line (.833), including 11-of-13 in the second half. DSU also outrebounded CBU by a 39-33 count, 13-8 on the offensive glass, and turned the ball over just six times, with only one of those miscues coming after halftime.

Hubbard led CBU with 15 points, though they all came in the first half as the Trailblazer defense held him to only one shot attempt in the second half. CBU hit on 43.1 percent (22-of-51) from the floor, which included a 40.7 percent (11-of-27) (.407) clip from the perimeter, while the top free-throw shooting team in the PacWest hit on just 9-of-17 (.529) from the foul line.

Dixie State, which was ranked No. 4 in the NCAA West Region going into this weekend's PacWest tournament, will learn its seeding this Sunday night as the 2018 NCAA Tournament Selection Show will be broadcast live on NCAA.com at 8:30 p.m. (MT).

TOURNAMENT NOTES: Dixie State became the first PacWest program to sweep both the PacWest regular season and tournament titles for a second time … DSU also achieved that feat in 2013, which was the first season the PacWest postseason tournament was held … DSU is also the first two-time winner of the PacWest postseason tournament … CBU's Diouf and Heading were named to the all-tournament team, as was Concordia-Irvine's Brian Chambers.