BOX SCORE

BELMONT, Calif. — A solid team effort, punctuated by a strong close to the first half helped lift the Dominican University of California men's basketball team to a 74-60 win over former rival CSU East Bay.

The Penguins (2-3) stifled the Pioneers (2-1) in the first half, limiting CSU East Bay to just six points in the paint and .276 shooting from the field. East Bay did get on the scoreboard first with one of the Pioneers' four first-half three-pointers. Xander McNally quickly got to the free throw line and gave Dominican the lead at 4-3. Dominican held the lead until 9:40, when CSUEB's Jun Uchida nailed two free throws of his own. An Austin Bryan dunk got the lead back for Dominican at the 4:45 mark and the Penguins never relinquished the lead.

The Penguins quickly stretched their 36-27 halftime lead into a 46-31 advantage. With 9:41 to play a Mark Lewis jumper gave Dominican its biggest lead at 18. The Pioneer's Scott Knox made two three-pointers down the stretch to tie and break the CSU East Bay three-point record but the Pioneers never pulled closer than 12 points.

Four starters reached double digits for Dominican. Lewis led all players with 15 points. Bryan scored 13 points. Killian Larson and McNally each ended the night with 11 points. Alex Ward added nine points and a game-high six rebounds in the win.

McNally led all players with nine assists and nine steals.

Mark Samuels and Demitrius Owens led the Pioneers with 10 points apiece.

"Xander did an excellent job at both ends of the floor and all of our guards did a great job at the defensive end," said Dominican Head Coach Bret Tovani. "We're playing team basketball right now and it shows."

After the game it as announced that McNally was named the Tournament MVP and Bryan was named to the All-Tournament Team. They were joined by Notre Dame de Namur's Bennie Murray, CSU East Bay's Samuels, and Western Oregon's Matt Schmidt.

The Dominican men will travel to Utah for two games in the Dixie State Classic. The Penguins will face Montana State University-Billings on Dec. 4 and Northwest Nazarene University on Dec. 5. Tipoff for both games are scheduled for 5:00 p.m./4:00 p.m. Pacific.