BOX SCORE

HONOLULU, Hawai'i — The Dominican University of California men's basketball team showed signs of breaking out of its season-long slump but ultimately fell short in Monday night's Pacific West Conference game at Chaminade University, coming up on the short end of a low-scoring 48-43 affair.

It was a defensive battle in the first half, with the Penguins (0-12/0-2) making just 6-of-25 (.240) attempts and the Silver Swords making 5-of-19 (.263) attempts. Despite that, Dominican only made five first-half turnovers and brought a slight 15-14 lead into halftime.

The Penguins shot better in the second half, going 11-of-27 (.407), but relinquished the lead at the 7-minute mark on a Dominique Cooks fast break layup. Chaminade never took larger than a five-point lead down the stretch and Dominican trailed by just a single point with less than a minute to play. Chris Carter's drive and layup pushed the Chaminade lead to three and Dominican had a couple of chances to tie it with nine seconds but a layup and a three-pointer refused to fall. The Penguins were forced to foul and Cooks nailed both free throws to close out the game.

Cooks and De'Andre Haskins led the Silver Swords with 12 points apiece. Steven Bennett and Matt Cousins each added nine points apiece while Mamadou Diarra led all players with 12 rebounds.

Senior guard Adam Chavis led all players with 13 points in 17 minutes for the Penguins. Sophomore center Killian Larson recorded his second straight double-double, tallying 10 points, all in the first half, and pulling down a team-high 11 rebounds. Senior forward Leon Hart added seven points and freshman center Connor Haysbert added six points in the loss.

Dominican will take on BYU-Hawaii on Wednesday, Dec. 12 and finish up the four-game roadtrip through Hawai'i on Friday, Dec. 14 versus Hawai'i Pacific University. Both games are being played at BYU-Hawai'i, whose campus is located on the North side of Oahu in Laie.