Dixie State gave its new in-state rival all they could handle, but the Trailblazers could not hold on to a late lead as Southern Utah shot its way to an 85-78 win on Thursday night inside the America First Event Center. The loss dropped the Blazers (3-1) from the ranks of the unbeaten in their first season of NCAA Division I play, while the Thunderbirds improved to 5-1.

Bolstered by a pair of Frank Staine 3-pointers and a conventional three-point play from Cameron Gooden, the Trailblazers raced out to a quick 13-4 advantage. Dixie State would extend to a 17-7 advantage after a Jarod Greene lay-in, but SUU answered with a run of its own, a 14-5 spurt that trimmed the deficit to a single point at 22-21 following a Marquis Moore trey.

DSU managed to push its lead back up to four at 27-23, but the Thunderbirds kept their momentum going, scoring 11 of the game's next 13 points to bolt to their biggest lead of the night at 34-29 with 5:10 to play until halftime.

The Trailblazers countered with five-straight points thanks to a Gooden 3-pointer and Jacob Nicolds jumper to tie the game at 34-34. However Southern Utah would close the half with an 11-2 run to take a 45-36 lead into the locker room. SUU hit four of its six first half 3-pointers over the final eight minutes of the frame to aid its rally.

Dixie State stayed within striking distance until it could mount a run of its own, and that run came midway through the second half. Trailing 59-50 with 11:09 to play, the Blazers rattled off a 14-2 run over a three-minute span which turned a nine-point deficit into a 64-61 DSU lead with 8:06 to play.

Gooden started the run with a bucket in the paint, then following a Harrison Butler jumper, the Trailblazers scored the next 12 points. Staine converted a conventional three-point play, while Brock Gilbert drained a 3-pointer from the right wing. Gooden followed with a pair of free throws and Isaiah Pope tallied the final four points of the rally to give the Blazers their first lead of the frame. 

But as quickly as Dixie State regained the momentum, the Thunderbirds got hot from the perimeter and stole it right back. Trailing 68-65 with 4:29 left, SUU guard Aanen Moody went off, hitting three 3-pointers over the next 1:16 to single-handedly give his side the lead back at 74-70 with 3:13 remaining.

Tevian Jones followed with a trey of his own on SUU's next possession as the T-Birds outscored Dixie State 16-4 to open up a commanding 81-72 advantage with just 1:08 left to play. The T-Bird defense forced five DSU turnovers and held the Trailblazers to one field goal and two free throws to wrestle the lead back for good.

"It was a fun game, it was intense and I wouldn't say that it went down to the wire, but if you really look at it, it kind of did," DSU Head Coach Jon Judkins said. "We had a couple chances to take the lead and kind of push it, but we didn't take advantage of [the situation].

"I was proud of our guys and how hard they played," Judkins added. "I didn't feel like it was our fourth game, it felt like a mid-January or first of February game, and that's a good sign."

Gooden led three Trailblazers in double figures with 16 points with three made 3-pointers, while Nicolds added 15 points before fouling out. Meanwhile Staine posted his second career double-double with 13 points on 4-of-6 shooting to go with a game and season-high 10 rebounds.

Dixie State shot 45.8 percent from the floor (27-of-59), which included a 9-of-23 (.391) effort from the perimeter, while the Blazers connected on a season-high 75.0 percent (15-of-20) at the foul line. However the Trailblazers were done in on the rebounding side of things as SUU outrebounded Dixie State, 46-32, including a whopping 18-5 count on the offensive glass, which led to 19 SUU second chance points (19-4).

"I think we can learn a lot from this game. Defensively we got to do better at keeping guys in front and do a better job on the glass," said Judkins. "We shot 52 percent in the second half [to get back into the game], and nearly 40 percent from the three-point line on the night, so it wasn't our offense that hurt us, it was our defense and rebounding. That's something we can show [our team] on film and get better.

"Give Southern Utah a lot of credit, they're a good team and they're going to do really well in the Big Sky [Conference]," Judkins concluded. "We'll get better, but it was a fun game."

John Knight III led all scorers with 22 points on a sizzling 9-of-10 from the floor, while Jones added 17 points with four treys, and Moody went 5-of-8 from downtown to finish with 15 points. SUU shot 42.9 percent (30-of-70) from the field and was 11-of-31 (.355) from beyond the arc.

Dixie State closes out the 2020 portion of its home schedule with a match-up against Bethesda College on Saturday, Dec. 19. Tip-off inside the Burns Arena is slated for 7 p.m.