Cameron Gooden led three Trailblazers in double figures with a game and season-high 23 points as Dixie State opened the road portion of its 2020-21 slate with a hard fought 73-70 road victory at Denver on Saturday afternoon inside Hamilton Gymnasium. With the win, DSU ran its record to 3-0 to begin its Division I era, while the Pioneers fell to 1-3.
Dixie State raced out of the gate for a quick 16-7 lead just four minutes in. The Blazers used a 13-4 run, highlighted by consecutive
Frank Staine 3-pointers along with a
Hunter Schofield trey to open the nine-point lead.
The Pioneers managed to stay within striking distance and would eventually wrestled the lead back at 32-30 on a Drake Muller perimeter jumper with 2:17 to play in the period. Gooden would answer with a three of his own as DSU scored 10 of the final 14 points of the frame to take a 40-36 advantage in the halftime break.
"I was really happy with the way we started," said DSU Head Coach Jon Judkins. "We always say 'let's go out and throw the first punch' and we did that, we came out and won the first four-plus minutes.
"[Denver] kind of went on a run there after that and we let them back into the game. But I thought the way started and the way we competed was really good."
The Trailblazers never trailed the rest of the way and looked to be in control of things after extending to their biggest lead of the night at 58-46 with 9:35 to go after two Gooden free throws.
However Denver had other ideas as the Pioneers rattled off 11-straight points over a three-minute span to trim the Blazer lead to a single point at 58-57 with 6:31 on the clock.
Dixie State countered six consecutive points, bolstered by two tough Schofield makes in the paint, to push the lead back to seven at 64-57 with 3:22 remaining. Denver got to within one point again at 64-63, but Gooden nailed a clutch 3-pointer from the left wing with 1:11 to go.
Jacob Nicolds also connected on a leaner in the lane with 30 seconds left, and DSU hit on 4-of-6 at the line in the waning moments to hold the Pioneers at bay and clinch the win.
Gooden hit on 7-of-13 from the field, including 5-of-7 from downtown, and finished with three assists and three rebounds in 34 minutes of action.
"Cameron [Gooden] played really good," Judkins noted. "The one three he hit [with 1:11 remaining] to put us up four was a big one for us. He's getting used to playing and getting more comfortable, and that was a big difference today."
Meanwhile Schofield knocked down six of his nine attempts en route to 14 points off the bench, and Staine wound up with 10 points and a game-high five assists.
Dixie State shot 42.4 percent from the floor (25-of-59), which included a 10-of-27 (.370) clip from the perimeter, while the Blazers went just 61.9 percent (13-of-21) at the foul line. DSU did lose the rebounding battle by a 38-26 count, but the Blazer defense forced 22 Pioneer turnovers, 14 of which came after halftime, which led to 21 DSU points.
Denver finished the game 23-of-49 (.469) from the floor overall, but was just 4-of-15 (.267) from beyond the arc. Pioneer guard Jase Townsend led four DU players in double figures with 21 points.
"[Hamilton Gym] was a tough place to play, especially with it being a quiet gym [no fans in attendance], and it being our first road game," said Judkins. "But our guys handled it and figured out a way to win in the end. It was a good first road win for us and to get a win there was huge."
Dixie State is scheduled to continue its road swing this Tuesday night, Dec. 15, as the Trailblazers head to Logan for their first-ever meeting against in-state foe Utah State. Tip-off inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum is slated for 7 p.m.
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