Dixie State used a big first-half run and never looked back as the Trailblazers pushed their winning streak to seven-straight with a 74-52 triumph over Western Colorado Friday night in the Burns Arena. The victory moved Dixie State to 12-8 overall, 10-6 in RMAC play, while WCU fell to 3-19, 0-16 in league action.

After falling behind 8-4 four minutes in, the Trailblazers rattled off a decisive 26-7 run over a near eight-minute span to double up the Mountaineers, 30-15, with an even 8:00 to go before the halftime break. Dixie State used a balanced offensive attack during the run as seven different Blazers scored, while the defense stepped up to force a pair of WCU turnovers and held the Mountaineers to just 3-of-10 shooting over that stretch.

Dixie State maintained its double-digit lead the rest of the way and saw it swell to as many as 27 points before settling for the 22-point win.

Three Trailblazers scored in double figures, led by Julien Ducree with a co-game high 14 points on 7-of-12 shooting, while Quincy Mathews and Wade Miller each poured in 11 points off the bench. In all, 11 of the 13 Blazers who played scored at least two points as the DSU bench outscored Western 41-13.

Dixie State enjoyed a solid shooting night, hitting on 52.4 percent (33-of-63) from the floor, including 56.0 percent (14-of-25) after halftime, and went 5-of-14 (.357) from the perimeter. DSU also outscored Western 52-16 in the paint and finished with 19 assists on its 33 made field goals, highlighted by a game-high five dimes from Jack Pagenkopf.

However the shooting touch did not translate at the foul line as the Trailblazers posted a NCAA era program-low 21.4 percent clip (3-of-14) at the stripe, which included an 0-for-9 result in the second half. DSU did outrebound Western 46-35 and committed a season-low nine turnovers.

"I thought we came out with a ton of energy tonight and it was good to see that," DSU Head Coach Jon Judkins said. "We were flying around and hustling and playing good defense. I liked how we score 52 points in the paint and [Western] scored 52 points in the game. The game plan worked, we wanted to pound it inside and we did that.

"It was fun to see guys on our bench who don't normally get to see time play well and we were able to rest our starters ahead of a big game [Saturday] with Colorado Mesa," Judkins added. "[CMU] is good and we know they are going to be hungry after we played one of our best games of the season against them (DSU 86, at CMU 61 – 1/25/19), so we have to be ready to go."

Brady Subart led three Mountaineers in double figures with 14 points. WCU shot 35.2 percent from the floor (19-of-54) and after hitting a DSU-opponent record 21 3-pointers (21-of-49) in the Blazers' 96-91 overtime win last month in Gunnison (1/26), Western was just 6-of-25 (.240) from beyond the arc on Friday.

Dixie State wraps up its four-game homestand Saturday night with a crucial RMAC showdown against Colorado Mesa in the Burns Arena at 7:30 p.m.