Despite a furious second half rally, No. 2 seed Dixie State saw its RMAC Tournament run, and its 13-game winning streak, come to an abrupt end as the Trailblazers fell to No. 7 seed New Mexico Highlands, 86-82, in the conference quarterfinals Tuesday night inside the Burns Arena. The loss dropped DSU to 18-9 on the season, while the Cowboys (20-9) will advance to play No. 3 seed Regis, which defeated No. 6 UCCS 80-78 on Tuesday, in RMAC semifinal round on Friday.

Dixie State found itself in an early 11-5 hole after the first five minutes of play thanks to a stingy Cowboy pressure defense. However the Blazers looked as if they had solved NMHU full-court press as DSU rattled off a 12-1 spurt to flip the score and vault to a 17-12 advantage after a Quincy Mathews jumper and free throw with 11:13 to go in the period.

Unfortunately for the Trailblazers their advantage was short-lived as the Cowboys stormed back with 12-straight points as part of a 25-5 run to take a commanding 37-22 lead and would enjoy a 41-29 cushion at the halftime break.

NMHU maintained its double-digit lead through the first 10 minutes of the second half and would extend it to 17 points at 59-42 following a Raquan Mitchell 3-point play with just under 12 minutes to go.

Dixie State finally got its second half wake-up on its next trip down the court when Mathews stole an outlet pass from Mitchell and found Julien Ducree for a dunk and free throw. That play sparked a 10-0 Blazer run that pulled DSU to within 59-52 after a Dason Youngblood fast-break lay-in.

The Cowboys quickly pushed its lead back to 11 at 63-52, but again the Blazers would answer with an 11-3 spurt, keyed on by a pair of Wade Miller 3-pointers, to trim the deficit to three at 66-63 with 6:28 to play.

New Mexico Highlands came right back with 3-pointers from Desmond Carpenter and Gerad Davis that bookended a Ducree bucket and Mitchell basket, as the Cowboys would again extend to a double-digit lead at 76-66 with 4:11 to go.

The Trailblazers made one final push as Miller nailed two more treys, the second of which cut the NMHU lead to 79-75 with 1:06 left. However four points would be as close as DSU would get as the Cowboys hit 7-of-10 at the foul line to offset one more Miller 3-pointer and escape with the win.

"In this tournament these teams are good and you can't give a good team like that a 17-point lead," DSU Head Coach Jon Judkins said. "[NMSU's] press hurt us early and I don't know why, we knew it was coming and we worked on it, but it was like we were scared to attack it. Once we figured out their press in the second half, we started attacking it and got some wide open shots, we got some lay-ups, and we got them in foul trouble.

"Credit Highlands, we'd cut [the lead] to three points three different times and they hit some big 3-pointers on us to jump their lead back up," Judkins added. "I was proud of how hard our guys played, we fought to the end, we didn't quit and we had our chances, but this was a tough one."

Ducree paced three Trailblazers in double figures with career-highs of 20 points and 11 rebounds to record his second double-double of the year. Ducree, who was named RMAC co-Defensive Player of the Year earlier in the day, hit 7-of-9 from the floor, while eight of his 11 caroms came on the defensive end with one steal and one block.

Meanwhile Miller tied a season-high with 17 points, all of which came after halftime, as he hit on 5-of-8 from the perimeter with a pair of free throws in the second half. Jack Pagenkopf added 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting with four boards, three assists and two steals.

Dixie State shot 46.0 percent (29-of-63) from the field, which included a 54.5 percent clip (18-of-33) in the second half. DSU also hit on 6-of-18 (.333) from beyond the arc, 5-of-11 (.455) after halftime, and outrebounded the Cowboys by a 46-34 count. However the Blazers were done in by 21 turnovers, including 13 miscues in the first half, and an 18-of-30 (.600) night at the foul line.

Mitchell led all scorers with 25 points on 8-of-14 shooting with five rebounds and five assists, while Davis added 15 points. NMHU hit on 26-of-59 (.441) from the floor with 12 3-pointers (12-of-29, .414).

In the other two RMAC quarterfinal games on Tuesday night, top-seed Colorado School of Mines defeated No. 8 seed Adams State, 82-70, and No. 4 seed Black Hills State posted a 73-70 win over No. 5 seed Colorado Mesa.

Dixie State, which was ranked No. 8 in the South Central Region going into this week's RMAC Tournament, will now wait until Sunday to learn if it will be awarded an at-large bid to the 2019 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Tournament South Central Regional.

"Now we've just got to sit here over these next few days and wait to see what happens," said Judkins. "We hope and pray that nobody gets upset and we stay where we're at [at No. 8 in the region] and hopefully we have some more games to play."

The 2019 NCAA Tournament Selection Show will be broadcast live on NCAA.com this Sunday, March 10, at 8:30 p.m. (MT).