Box Score ST. GEORGE, UT (February 16, 2015) – The Hawai'i Pacific Men's Basketball Team (14-10, 9-9) almost knocked off PacWest heavyweight Dixie State in front of 3,177 fans (18-6, 5-3) on Monday to end the road trip. However, the Red Storm came away with a 57-50 victory.

The game started off about as badly as HPU fans could imagine; Dixie State grabbed an 18-2 lead after HPU made just one basket over the first nine and a half minutes. However, from that point, it was all HPU for the rest of the half. The Sharks went on a 21-6 run over the final 10:30 to trail by just one at the break (24-23).

The second half was very close with the teams trading the lead back and forth. Justin Long nailed a three-pointer with 10:50 left to give HPU a 40-39 lead. The Sharks continued to push the Red Storm, although HPU did not lead again. HPU made it a two point game twice in the final six minutes but couldn't complete the comeback.

Long had a game-high 18 points, helped by four three pointers. Luke Hager just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds. Colfax Nordquist added eight rebounds to go with his five points.

With the loss, HPU drops to 9-9 in PacWest play. Dominican beat Academy of Art on Monday to improve to 9-8 and push HPU out of the sixth and final PacWest playoff spot. HPU can reclaim the sixth spot with a win vs. Dominican in the head-to-head matchup next Tuesday. A loss to Dominican would eliminate the Sharks from playoff contention.

Dominican visits the Neal Blaisdell Center on February 24th at 6:30 pm for the biggest game of the season.