The Dixie State College women’s basketball team suffered yet another loss to Grand Canyon University on Saturday.
Although senior guard Erica Hayes tallied off 23 points, and junior forward Johnna Brown added 18 points, the team ended with a 58-68 loss to GCU.
“Yeah we lost, but I was so proud of them,” head coach Derek Dawes said. “Yeah mistakes were made, obviously, but we should be happy with the result.”
GCU’s defense held DSC to a 36.5 shooting percentage on the night and out-rebounded the Storm 48-32. This gave Dixie its seventh loss in its last nine games.
“We’re all sad about it, but we just need to move on because we have more games coming up,” said forward Kirsten Maria Liana, a sophomore integrated studies major from Honolulu. “It’s unfortunate that we lost, but we just need to get our heads focus on the game and work more as a team rather than individually.”
GCU never gave Dixie the chance as it started the game up 10-6 just five minutes in, and it led 33-25 at halftime.
Dixie closed the gap 48-35 with 8:29 left in the game, but Grand Canyon stayed strong and changed its lead by 21 with six minutes left.
DSC then fought as it outscored GCU 21-9 over a six-minute time span and brought the Red Storm’s shooting percentage up to 40.6 in the final 20 minutes of the game. Although the women brought the game within single digits, they still fell short to the Lopes and came home with the loss.
The Red Storm played Fresno Pacific University Tuesday night, but results were unavailable by press time. An updated article will be at dixiesunnews.com.
The women face Academy of Art University on the road Saturday. This will be the first game against the Urban Knights this year.
“Academy of Art is going through a struggle right now, and our girls are ready,” Dawes said. “That Azusa game—as bad as it was, as bad as the effort was, it really made [the women] mad.”
Dawes said the Azusa game gave the women the determination to fight for this win.
“I hope they’ll take how they felt against Grand Canyon… and take that on the road,” Dawes said. “We’re capable of playing well on the road. We have to. I think all that stuff is behind us now, and we can just move forward.”
The Knights are 14-6 for their overall season. They played California Baptist University on Saturday and suffered a 68-85 loss.
The Storm beat Cal Baptist Jan. 5, 63-56, and Jan. 19, 73-69, so the team is expecting a win.
“We just need to focus and just play every game like it’s our last and go out with a bang—do work,” Liana said.
The women are headed for a four-game road trip starting Saturday against Academy of Art at 2 p.m.
“Anything can happen,” Dawes said. “They’re all very winnable games and they’re very losable games. But we expect to win.”
