AZUSA, Calif. -- Senior guard Bruce English scored 13 of his career-high 19 points in the second half, rallying Azusa Pacific past Dixie State for a 69-63 win and the Cougars' first-ever season sweep of the Red Storm.

With the win, Azusa Pacific remains one of four teams atop the Pacific West Conference standings with only one conference defeat, improving to 10-3 overall and 4-1 in conference play while defending PacWest co-champion Dixie State falls to 5-6 overall, 2-3 PacWest.

"Dixie State has won five of the last six conference championships, and we're still a new program to this league," Azusa Pacific head coach Justin Leslie said. "We want to be a contender every year, and in order to do that, you have to compete against the good programs. Their coach does a great job, their staff works hard, and they defend their home floor as well as anybody. They're going to be in the mix, so moving ahead of them in the standings speaks to our growth as a program."

English hit one of his five three-pointers on the opening possession of the second half to erase a 32-30 halftime deficit. After Dixie State reeled off seven more to take a 39-33 lead, senior guard LyDell Cardwell kicked off a 17-3 run with back-to-back three-pointers before English knocked down another triple with 11:22 left in the game. Azusa Pacific held the Red Storm to just one field goal on 15 attempts during that pivotal stretch, which gave the Cougars a 50-42 lead with 9:05 to play.

"The focus for us defensively was stopping them in transition," Leslie said. "They push the ball hard, and they're really good playing downhill, so getting back in transition was important. While we got them to miss shots, we also had to get rebounds, and we were even with them in rebounding in the second half."

Dixie State rallied again to tie the game at 54-54 when Brandon Simister converted a three-point play with just under six minutes remaining. However, English followed buckets from Will Ward and Jared Zoller by using the glass to knock down his fifth three-pointer of the game. The seven-point outburst kicked off a 15-4 run, which English finished with a layup to give the Cougars an 11-point lead (69-58), their largest of the game, with under a minute to play.

"Bruce came ready to play on both ends of the floor, but this was also a game where the depth of our team was really evident," Leslie said. "It's not going to look the same for us every night, and I appreciate the fact that we had different guys ready when the moment came for them to step up and give the team what it needed for success."

Ward and sophomore forward Austin Dyer joined English in double figures with 10 points each, while Dixie State was led by Trevor Hill's 21-point effort. However, Hill was the only Red Storm player to shoot better than 50 percent from the field, as Azusa Pacific registered a season-high 11 blocked shots while holding DSU to 20-of-66 (30 percent) shooting. After Dixie State hit four-of-five first-half three-pointers, the Red Storm misfired on all eight of its second-half three-point attempts and shot went eight-of-34 (24 percent) overall after halftime.

Zoller led the defensive performance with a career-high four blocks, while Ward and Petar Kutlesic each registered two. Ward was also Azusa Pacific's leading rebounder, grabbing seven boards while Kutlesic and English tallied six rebounds apiece.

The Cougars wrap up a three-game week with a Saturday afternoon home game against Chaminade.