Led by Cory Lange, the BYU–Hawaii men’s basketball team defeated visiting conference opponent, the Dixie State University Red Storm, 95-83.
Lange once again had the hot hand as he scored a team-high 22 points, including six three-pointers.
This was Lange’s second straight game with scoring over 20 points. “I am just glad that I have been able to step up and help my team when they have needed it,” said Lange, a junior business major from Tehachapi, California. “The team played great tonight, it was a team win.”
Justin Yamzon and Scott Friel both had great nights alongside Lange. Yamzon finished the night with his first career double-double with 11 points and a career-high 11 assists. Friel was his usual self, racking up stats in all categories with 18 points, five rebounds, and five assists.
In total the Seasiders recorded a team season-high 31 assists. “We played together really well tonight, we shared the ball and it made us very dangerous offensively,” said Yamzon, a junior exercise and sports science major from Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Seasiders started the game off with a pair of 7-point runs to take a 14-8 lead. Ian Harward came off the bench, playing his first minutes after missing two games due to injury, and sparked a 10-0 run. Yamzon also added a pair of three-pointers to give the Seasiders a 24-10 lead.
The Red Storm would respond, however, and cut the lead down to seven, 42-35, going into halftime after Zac Hunter hit a buzzer beat. Dixie would start the second half as they finished the first half, going on a 7-2 scoring run to cut the Seasiders’ lead to four.
After the Seasiders extended their lead back to double digits, Dixie would come storming back behind Mason Sawyer with a 9-0 to close the lead to one. Dixie would continue with the momentum and convert an and-one opportunity to take a one-point lead, 64-63. The Seasiders would get a response from Justin Park, who converted on a three-point play after getting fouled on a jumper to tie the game. Lange would then hit a clutch three-pointer to give the Seasiders the lead once again.
Though the game would continue to be tight, the Seasiders did get some breathing room behind a late 11-3 run. The run featured three-pointers by Lange and Yamzon, as the Seasiders extended their lead to 9. With Dixie fouling in the last minutes of the game, the Seasiders were money from the charity line as they closed out the game with the 12-point (95-83) win.
With the win the Seasiders improve to 11-6 on the season and 8-4 in conference play. The win also put them in fifth place and just two games behind first place. BYUH will now go on the road to Southern California, where they will face Point Loma, Concordia Irvine, California Baptist, and Azusa Pacific.
“This is a big road trip for us, getting some big wins will put us in a really good situation, we just have to take it one game at a time and play our best every game,” said Friel, a senior exercise and sports science major from Riverton, Utah.
Three of these four teams are ahead of the Seasiders in the PacWest standings.