As the Mavs finished the Clarion Inn Classic Saturday night, they looked to push their record to 3-1 on the young season. However, the Red Storm made that task a difficult one as they played the Mavs very tough. CMU tried to make a giant comeback, but fell to Dixie State 67-63.

“They had a great defensive stand at the end and they are a good team,” Shawn King said. “You win some and you lose some. We just missed buckets that we usually get to fall. I think they got lucky because we are a pretty good team.”

The Red Storm jumped out to an early 9-4 lead thanks to a couple three point shots. The Mavs were able to force Dixie State to foul, and earned a double-bonus with 10 minutes left in the half, but could only shoot 6 of 14 from the line. The Red Storm shot 54% from the field and hit four first half three's. After a tough half for the Mavs, they trailed going into intermission, 40-18.

“We just came out and looked groggy,” Colton Burgon said. “I'm not sure if we just weren't ready. We obviously played hard, shots just weren't falling. But we came into halftime and we knew what we had to do.”

Michael Bear led Maverick scorers with 5 points. Chandler Burgon had four points and Mike Melillo had three points, four rebounds and an assist at the break.

The Mavs came out hot in the second half, scoring the first eight points and holding Dixie State to zero points in the first four minutes. The Mavs continued to chip away at the lead as the half went on, cutting the lead all the way down to two with a minute to go. The teams exchanged baskets at the end to keep it a Red Strom lead. After missing two game-tying free throws and not being able to rebound the ball after forcing a miss, they couldn't complete the comeback, falling 67-63.

“Anytime you go down 22 points, you almost have to play a perfect game to give yourself a chance,” Coach Jim Heaps said. “We had two chances at the end to tie. And it's not like we didn't execute. It just didn't fall for us. We missed a couple free throws and we defended well, but didn't get a rebound at the end so we had to foul.”

Bear finished the game with 19 points and two rebounds. Mike Melillo had seven points and nine boards and Shawn King chipped in with 16 points. Colton Burgon had 10 points and three rebounds and his brother, Chandler, had six points and five boards. Chandler left the game for a brief moment in the second half after falling hard on his shoulder.

With the loss, the Mavs fall to 2-2 on the season and 0-2 on the backend of the back-to-backs. CMU will open RMAC play next Friday at Brownson Arena as the Mavs will host Chadron State.

Box Score