CEDAR CITY - Saturday may not be all right for fighting, but it was great for a budding rivalry between area college basketball teams.
In a game in which both teams put together sizeable runs, then settled into a back-and-forth contest, Dixie State's women eventually gained control in Centrum Arena with a late 12-3 run en route to its 59-53 non-conference victory over Southern Utah.
Playing without their ailing head coach, Steve Hodson, the young Thunderbirds played a spirited game. However, Dixie State matched SUU's intensity throughout the contest and hit seven 3-pointers, including Courtney Boyd's 3-for-5 shooting beyond the arc, to eventually pull away.
Boyd, a senior guard, and freshman guard Shanae Vaifanua each scored 11 points, and senior forward Jessica Carver added nine points and nine rebounds to lead Dixie State.
"We're a little bit more experienced than we've ever been. It's the first time we've even had seniors," said Dixie State coach Angie Kristensen, whose thoughts quickly turned to her counterpart's battle with bone marrow cancer. "It's a bittersweet win. We're thinking the world of him. Coach Hodson's done so much for Southern Utah basketball. I respect him a lot. (SUU) played hard."
The T-Birds shot 44.2 percent from the field on 19-of-43 shooting while Dixie State hit 29.8 percent (17-of-57), but DSC's 21-7 advantage on the offensive glass proved too much for SUU to overcome.
"They got 14 more attempts," said SUU assistant coach Kit Janes. "They had 14 more chances to score (on offensive rebounds), and they did. We used a lot of people in the first half. We've still got a lot to work on."
The T-Birds built an early 8-3 lead that DSC quickly countered with a 6-0 run, ending with Vaifanua's score inside off Sammi Griffith's steal and assist.
Jamie Sagers' jumper ended SUU's 11-4 run that gave the T-Birds a 19-13 lead, but was SUU's last points of the half.
Vaifanua's 3-pointer got Dixie State rolling on a 14-0 run over the final 3:15 of the first half and a 27-19 lead at the break.
SUU's Anne Westwood-Higbee and Stephanie Sampson hit consecutive layups to trim Dixie State's lead to 27-23. Westwood-Higbee added four straight points and fed Cassi Jones inside to get SUU closer at 34-31. The T-Birds took a 40-37 lead with their 9-0 run that spanned three minutes before Megan Tidwell's 3-pointer with 10:10 remaining knotted the contest at 40. The game teetered through seven lead changes and two ties over the next 5 1/2 minutes.
Hodson wasn't far from anyone's mind during or after the game.
"These 18 and 19-year-old kids did a great job of dealing with it É to stay focused," Janes said.
Added Westwood-Higbee, SUU's lone senior who scored a team-high 10 points: "Before the game we all wrote 'Coach Hod' on our right shoe. We can't be perfect (on the floor) but we want to go out and play how he'd want us to; go out hard like he'd want us to."
Westwood-Higbee hit two foul shots with 4:43 left to give the game its last tie at 49. Boyd drained a 3-pointer seconds later, Jessica Ingraham and Vaifanua each sank two free throws and Tanya Clark (eight points, eight rebounds) canned a jump shot with 2:00 remaining to put the game out of reach at 58-50.
Vaifanua, who starred at Hurricane High, impressed Kristensen in her first collegiate game.
"Shanae played unbelievable," Kristensen said. "She came in and tore it up. I'm proud of every one of our kids."
Added Vaifanua, who added two assists and three steals: "I just took it as another game and did whatever my coaches wanted me to do. I didn't try to be the top scorer, but tried to help the team as best I could."
