No. 22 Dixie State moved back into a tie for first place in the RMAC standings with a 90-82 road victory at Western Colorado Friday night at Paul Wright Gym. The win, coupled with a 68-67 Black Hills State home loss to CSU-Pueblo, pulled the Trailblazers (18-4/13-3 RMAC) even with BHSU with six conference games left in the 2019-20 regular season.

Trailing 31-26 with 7:47 to play in the first half, Dixie State went on a 16-4 run to bolt out to a 42-35 lead after a Jack Pagenkopf 3-pointer with 2:08 to go until halftime. Jacob Nicolds started the rally with perimeter jumper, while Hunter Schofield and Pagenkopf cashed in back-to-back WCU turnovers with lay-ups. Schofield wound up with eight points in the run, including six-straight before the Pagenkopf trey.

Meanwhile, the Trailblazer defense limited WCU (8-14/5-11 RMAC) to just four free throws over that span until a Cameron McCurry lay-in ended the Mountaineers' near six-minute field-goal drought. However that bucket did not slow the Dixie State momentum as the Blazers outscored WCU 23-6 to close the period and take a 49-37 lead into the locker room, which included a second Pagenkopf 3-pointer just before the halftime horn.

Dixie State maintained its double-digit lead for most of the second half, that was until Western rattled off eight-straight points to turn an 84-70 Blazer lead with 3:35 remaining into a two-possession game at 84-78 with 1:17 left on the clock. However DSU managed to hit 6-of-8 at the foul line the rest of the way to put the game on ice.

Nicolds led four Trailblazers in double figures with a career-high 17 points off the bench, with 12 of those points coming after halftime to help keep the Mountaineers at bay. Nicolds enjoyed a perfect shooting night as the sophomore hit all five of his field goal attempts, including that first-half trey, and went 6-of-6 at the foul line to go with three rebounds and a steal in a career-high 25 minutes of action.

Schofield finished with 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting, while Pagenkopf added 15 points with six assists and five boards, and Jarod Greene poured in 12 with a game-high eight caroms.

DSU connected on 49.1 percent (28-of-57) of its shots, 33.3 percent (7-of-21) from the perimeter, and shot a season-high 90.0 percent (27-of-30) at the foul line. Dixie State also outrebounded Western, 31-26, and tallied 20 assists and six steals.

Matthew Ragsdale led all scorers with 21 points on 8-of-16 from the floor with four 3-pointers. Western hit 11 treys (11-of-30; .367) on the night, seven of which came in the second half, and the Mountaineers finished the night 28-of-56 (.464) from the floor overall.

Dixie State wraps up its four-game RMAC road swing in Grand Junction with a showdown at Colorado Mesa Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.