BOX SCORE
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Dominican University of California men's basketball team opened eyes on Friday night when it took NCAA Division I Santa Clara University to the final seconds in a tightly played 69-65 loss.
Dominican (2-5) snapped up an early 7-6 lead at 15:55 when
Killian Larson drained a pair of free throws. Larson laid the ball in the next time down the court to take a 9-6 lead. The Broncos (5-4) trimmed the lead back to a point with 9:48 when Robert Smith netted a three-pointer to cut the Penguin lead to 20-19. The Penguins answered by going on an 11-0 run, capped by an
Alex Ward layup, to take their largest lead of the night at 30-20 with 5:56 to go in the first half. A pair of Mark Trasolini free throws chipped the Dominican lead back down to two before
Mark Lewis was fouled on a made layup and converted the free throw to put the lead back to seven. A Trasolini layup ended the half with the Penguins leading 37-32.
The Penguins gave up the lead just three minutes into the second half when Smith made a layup to send the Broncos ahead 40-39. Larson made another pair of free throws to take the lead back and the lead bounced back and forth five times before Santa Clara pulled ahead 62-52 on an and-one by Ben Dowdell. The Penguins cut the lead to five on a Ward three-pointer with 2:37 to play but the Broncos built the lead back to seven with 52 seconds on the clock. An
Alastair Flack three-pointer from the right side cut the lead 68-65 with 24 seconds left but a Smith free throw with seven seconds put the game out of reach.
Austin Bryan went 6-for-11 from the field to lead Dominican with 16 points. Ward finished his night with 13 points. Larson posted a career-high 12 points in the loss.
Xander McNally added nine points and a team-high seven rebounds.
Dominican held the Broncos to 21-45 from the field (.457) and a staggering 1-of-12 from behind the three-point arc (.083). However, Santa Clara took 35 free throws and converted 26 of them to go .714 from the charity stripe. The Penguins made 4-of-11 three pointers (.364) but shot just 19 free throws, making 15 on the night (.789).
As a team, the Penguins forced 21 turnovers, recorded 13 assists, and made 11 steals, all better than the Broncos for the night.
"We showed a lot of heart tonight, we got down by 10 and battled back," Flack said after the game. "We never gave up and gave those guys a scare."
The Penguins return home to the Conlan Center on Wednesday, Dec. 16 when CSU Los Angeles comes calling. Tipoff is slated for 7:00 p.m.
