The Dixie State offense came alive Saturday night in St George. The Trailblazers had four players in double digits in the 85-74 win over UTRGV. It was very much a team win in which the home squad put together a 50-point first half and never looked back.
Game Summary
A fairly back-and-forth game from the get go quickly turned in favor of Dixie State at the 12-minute mark. A Trevon Allfrey 3-pointer started a five minute, 12-0 run that was highlighted by a Dancell Leter breakaway dunk and gave the Trailblazers a 33-17 lead. The scoring didn’t stop there and Dixie took a 50-33 lead into halftime.
The second half started and stopped very quickly, as UTRGV called a timeout just 10 seconds into the frame. Neither team hit a bucket until the Vaqueros scored after two and a half minutes of play. It was an extremely physical second half that sent Dixie State to the line 16 times. UTRGV picked up the pace on the offensive end but couldn’t close the gap and Dixie State rolled comfortably to an 11-point win on Saturday night.
Starting Five Production
Hunter Schofield once again led the Trailblazers in scoring, with a 22-point night. It was Schofield’s third straight 20-plus points performance. He should be in strong consideration for conference player of the week on Monday. Isaiah Pope scored a season high 17 points. Pope shot 50 percent from the floor, had five rebounds and two steals. Dancell Leter went five of six from the floor en route to a 15-point, five-rebound night. Leter went to the charity stripe seven times and made five. The big night from the starting five was capped off by a huge double-double from Frank Staine. The Trailblazer veteran scored 11 points and grabbed 10 boards along with 2 assists and 0 turnovers. Dixie point guard Cameron Gooden contributed his own five points, five assists and four turnovers.
BIG dunk from the big man @Dancell_Leter ???
Blazers lead 30-17 at the media time out!#DixieBlazers #WeAreONE #WACmbb #WAChoops pic.twitter.com/TsNg1kzlXP
— Dixie State Men's Basketball (@DIXIESTATEBBALL) January 23, 2022
Contributions From the Bench
Freshman Noa Gonsalves had his second straight 8-point game. The guard continues to solidify his role for Dixie State as a solid scoring option for Judkins. Trevon Allfrey scored his own five points and freshman big man Trey Edmonds scored two points on a monster slam in the second half. Allfrey and Edmonds tallied all the Trailblazer blocks on the night.
Final Thoughts of the WACend
Dixie State has found a nice stride. Coming back home in front of the Burns Arena crowd has seemingly revived the offense. Both matchups of the week were against short-handed teams but it was a great showing for Judkins’ squad. The home sweep puts the Trailblazers right in the middle of the WAC standings as they travel to Chicago next Saturday. A win over a strong, high energy Cougar squad will bring Dixie State back to .500 in conference play.
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