BOX SCORE | PODCAST

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — It was a tale of two halves for the Dominican University of California men's basketball team as the Penguins said goodbye to 2009 with a disappointing loss to Cal State East Bay 54-50 on Wednesday night in non-conference action at the Conlan Center.

The Penguins, who defeated the Pioneers 74-60 on Nov. 28, looked poised for the season sweep early on.  Alex Ward got Dominican on the scoreboard first with a pair of layups. The Penguins held the lead the entire first half, pushing a seven-point lead into a 12-point lead on a Xander McNally fast break layup. A Mark Lewis jump shot gave the Penguins their largest lead of the night at 18 before a Ryan Parker layup cut the lead back to 16 to send Dominican into the locker room with a 28-12 advantage. Despite going 0-for-5 from the three-point line, Dominican managed to connect on 13-of-29 (.448) field goal attempts in the first half, while limiting the Pioneers to just 5-of-25 (.200) shooting.

The Penguins came out of the locker room strong with layups by Lewis and Austin Bryan to extend the lead to 32-12 early in the second half. Things took a turn for the worst though, as Cal State East Bay strung together a 13-point run to cut the lead to 32-25. A Fox Mulholland jumper stopped the bleeding temporarily for Dominican but the Pioneers pressed on, cutting the lead to 34-31. Demitrius Owens made three straight baskets to propel the Pioneers ahead 37-36 with 10 minutes to play. The Penguins took a three-point lead back a Ward fast break but Dominican was unable to put the game out of reach. Instead, Owens put the Pioneers on his back, stringing together a 6-2 run of his own to put Cal State East Bay up 44-42 with just under seven minutes to go. Alastair Flack's layup with two and a half minutes gave Dominican a two-point lead but Owens tied it again at 1:17. The Penguins turned the ball over on their last two possessions, resulting in four Cal State East Bay points and the loss.

Cal State East Bay improved from the field in the second half, making 18-of-31 attempts (.581) to finish with a .411 shooting clip. The Penguins cooled off in the second half, making just 11-of-32 (.344) to finish the game shooting .393. Neither team made a shot from behind the three-point line, as the Penguins finished 0-for-9 and the Pioneers put up 12 misses.

Ward led Dominican with 11 points and had 8 of the team's 27 rebounds. Killian Larson and Lewis added 10 points each in the loss. McNally finished his night with four points and seven assists.

Owens led all scorers with 22 points and snatched 12 of the Pioneers' 51 rebounds.

The Dominican men will look to improve in 2010, as they face their newest challenge: Pacific West Conference play. The Penguins kickoff their inaugural season in the PacWest on Jan. 5 in a double-header at the Conlan Center against visiting Hawai'i Pacific University. The men tipoff at 7:30 p.m. with the women preceding at 5:30 p.m.