The men's basketball team avoided two upsets against Dominican University and Academy of Art University to stay at the top of the Pacific West Conference.
The two schools from the San Francisco area came to Dixie State College with opportunities to spoil the conference championship hopes of the Red Storm (18-5, 12-2), but junior guard Donovan Plunkett and senior forward Andy Palmer had stellar scoring performances to lead DSC to two victories.
Plunkett recorded 18 points on Thursday against the Penguins of DU (9-16, 6-8) as the Red Storm won 73-64.
The Penguins traded the lead with the Red Storm in the first half until DSC pulled away with a 10-0 run. The run gave the Red Storm a 35-23 lead going into the locker rooms for halftime. DSC led in the second half by as many as 17 points, but the Penguins did not allow the Red Storm to pull too far away.
DU freshman center Killian Larson led the Penguins with 17 points and seven rebounds. Larson put in a layup with 58 seconds remaining to cut the DSC lead to eight points. It didn't matter because the Penguins missed two 3-pointers, which led to free throws for the Red Storm.
The last place Urban Knights of AAU (0-24, 0-14) gave the Red Storm everything they could handle on Saturday as the Red Storm pulled away in the second half with an 88-77 win.
The DSC coaching staff chose to play without junior forward Tom Whitehead against the Urban Knights in order to give Whitehead extra rest for the two games against Hawaii schools this week.
"I hate these games," head coach Jon Judkins said. "You do everything you can as a coach not to overlook them, but I think sometimes it just happens. When you're playing a team like [Academy of Art] you've got to put them away right from the start."
Judkins said the team played like it was hoping not to lose rather than trying to dominate the Urban Knights.
The Red Storm led 60-59 with 8:45 remaining in the game until senior guard Adam Ross hit a 3-pointer. This sparked the DSC offense as the team pulled away.
Palmer fouled out of the game with 2:58 remaining in regulation. As he went off the court the crowd gave him a standing ovation. Palmer led DSC with 24 points. Freshman center Zach Robbins also contributed highly to DSC's success with 18 points and 17 rebounds.
Freshman guard McKay Massey, a general education major from Payson, said he's happy with the way he and the rest of the Red Storm bench has played as of late. Massey played 29 minutes in the game against AAU and contributed 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
The Red Storm begin their final week of the regular season on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. against the University of Hawaii-Hilo. DSC defeated the UHH Vulcans (13-10, 7-6) 79-76 on Feb. 14 in Hilo, Hawaii. The Vulcans nearly upset Brigham Young University-Hawaii on Thursday as they lost 75-69.
The regular season finale could end up being the PacWest championship game as the Sea Warriors of Hawaii Pacific University (19-5, 11-2) come to St. George on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Massey said the feeling in the locker room is that the players are excited about possibly winning the conference championship.
"We know we have to take care of business," he said. "It's in our hands."
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