Home win streak over, but Dixie still winning

Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Dec 27, 2003 by Jay Hinton Deseret Morning News

For the first time since Jan. 21, 2000, the Dixie State College men's basketball team lost a home game. The Rebels' 72-game streak came to a screeching halt Nov. 29 to the College of Eastern Utah, 75- 73.

The game was the second of back-to-back games between the two schools. Dixie State squeaked out a 64-60 win the night before.

"Playing the same team twice ended that streak more than Eastern Utah," Dixie State coach Jeff Kidder said. "We played awful on Friday and normally the following day we play someone different."

Utah Valley State College, Ricks College, Treasure Valley and College of Southern Nevada left the Scenic West Athletic Conference, forcing the remaining seven teams in the league to adjust schedules.

In order to get games for its teams, the league decided to have each team play the others four times -- back-to-back home games at each site.

Kidder calls it a necessary evil, but doesn't like the situation.

"It takes the spirit out of competition and fun of preparing for someone different," Kidder said.

Currently, the Rebels are 10-3 overall and 6-3 in league play.

This year's Rebel team is much different than last year's team that went 30-6 and finished third in the nation. Only one player returned from that team.

"Right now we're finding our way to become a good basketball team," Kidder said. "Trying to put that all together is something you have to experience every year in junior college."

Gone is Chris Huber, who transferred to Utah State. Nick Hammer is serving an LDS mission to Brazil and will transfer to Utah State when he returns, and Johnny Mathis transferred to Creighton University (Nebraska).

"That's the nature of the beast," Kidder said.

At the same time, the Rebels had four players transfer in from Div. I schools. Tyler Amaya and Dustin Villepique transferred in from Gonzaga, Vincent Grier from UNC-Charlotte and Coric Riggs from Louisville.

Kidder, in his six full seasons with the Rebels, has been able to put together winning teams. The Rebels have been to the NJCAA National Tournament four of the past six years and won the title two seasons ago.

The Rebels have five players who score in double figures, led by Grier's 16.5 points per game. Villepique and Jason Petrimoulx average 13.2 each, while Amaya and Spencer Ford average 10.5 and 10 ppg, respectively.

The Rebels, who haven't played since Dec. 13, return to action New Year's Day for the first of three non-league games. They return to conference action Jan. 9 at North Idaho College. They return home Jan. 16-17 when they play host to the College of Southern Idaho.

E-mail: jhinton@desnews.com