OREM, Utah - A career night from freshman Miles Dixon wasn't enough as the HBU Huskies came up short in a 72-66 decision to Utah Valley on Saturday night in Great West action at the UVU Events Center.
Dixon scored a career-high 23 points on 7-12 shooting from the field. The freshman connected on 5-7 from three-point range after not making more than two in a game prior to this game. He was 4-5 at the foul line and also grabbed three rebounds.
The Huskies opened the game with an 11-2 lead less than five minutes in thanks in large part to a quick seven points from Dixon. The Wolverines cut that lead down to one in less than five minutes but HBU answered and pushed the lead back to nine with 6:44 remaining in the half. UVU used a 14-0 run to go ahead by five late in the half and took a 30-29 lead in to the intermission.
HBU regained the lead early in the second half after Dixon hit a three and then got a layup to fall to give the Huskies their largest lead of the second half at the 15:44 mark. The score remained close for the next 10 minutes but the Wolverines managed to pull ahead by nine with less than three minutes left. The Huskies cut it to four with 35 seconds on the clock on a Wendell Preadom layup. A missed free throw by Eric Dearden with 28 seconds bounced out of bounds off a pair of HBU players on the rebound and UVU's Jordan Swarbrick hit a pair of free throws to make it a six-point game with 24 seconds on the clock and put the game out of reach.
Preadom finished the game with 15 points and eight rebounds while Michael Moss added seven rebounds, six points, six steals and 3 assists. Mario Flaherty ended the night with eight points and seven rebounds and Andrew Gonzalez had seven points along with eight rebounds.
HBU shot 37.1 percent (23-62) from the floor and 31.3 percent (5-16) from three. At the foul line, the Huskies were 15-23 (65.2 percent). HBU held a 42-35 edge in rebounds, including 18 rebounds on the offensive end. Turnovers were close with the Huskies committing 15 to the Wolverines' 14.
The Huskies' record falls to 5-17 overall and 4-2 in the Great West Conference.
HBU travels to Edinburg for its next game on Wednesday, February 10 where the Huskies will take on the University of Texas-Pan American at 8:00 pm.
