Box Score SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — The Dominican University of California men's basketball team made an exciting late charge but couldn't recover from an early hole on Thursday in a 78-70 Pacific West Conference loss to first-place Chaminade in the Conlan Center.

Jacob Noisat had 13 of his team-high 16 points and eight of his game-high 11 rebounds in the second half  when the Penguins (3-14/2-5) cut an 18-point deficit with eight minutes to go to six points in the final minute on a 3-pointer by Myles Carrillo.

Mark Lewis added 15 points, tying his season-high, on 7-of-14 shooting for Dominican and teammate Jammall Clark netted 10 of his 14 points after intermission, the second game in a row Clark has scored 14 points. Xander McNally, who came into the game second in the nation in NCAA Division II with an average of 3.6 steals per game, had two steals against Chaminade to go along with nine points and a game-high five assists.

Bennie Murray, a .259 shooter from 3-point range entering the contest, connected on 5-of-6 shots from beyond the arc to tally a game-high 21 points to lead the Silverswords (7-5/5-0), the defending Pacific West Conference co-champion. With BYU-Hawaii falling at Notre Dame de Namur University and Cal Baptist University dropping its home contest versus Hawai'i Pacific University on Thursday night, the Silver Swords moved into sole possession of first place in the PacWest.

“One of the reasons we got ourselves in a hole is we lost guys (Silversword scorers) in transition,” said Head Coach Booker T. Harris. “You work on it all week to stop it and when you don't stop it, it hurts.”

The slow-starting Penguins fell behind early as Chaminade, with senior Matt Cousins scoring eight points of his 11 points, jumped to 12-4 lead six minutes into the contest. Dominican spent the rest of the first half looking for a spark to create some much-needed momentum.
They didn't get it from a steal and dunk by Clark to pull the Penguins within six points. They didn't get it from a technical foul on Chaminade's Dominique Cooks. Yet the Penguins, trailing by 14 points at one point, nearly forced their way back into the contest when Noisat came off the bench to score to cut the Silverswords' lead to eight.

But, on Dominican's next possession, Clark missed a difficult close-in shot that would have sliced the Chaminade lead to six with 8:15 left in the half.

The Silverswords eventually upped their advantage back to 13 before the Penguins made another charge. Back-to-back baskets by Lewis ignited the crowd but, with a chance to close the gap to eight points, Lewis was called for a charging foul after feeding Noisat for a dunk to nullify the basket.

The second half was much of the same for the Penguins. Every attempt to grind back within striking distance of Chaminade was thwarted. Lewis had back-to-back-to-back baskets but the Penguins could get no closer than eight points. The Silverswords then kicked into a higher gear and raced to an 8-0 run and a 17-point lead, 47-30, with 14:14 to go.

The Penguins, despite a magnificent breakaway dunk by Derek Ober and a trio of Clark's hoops, couldn't get any closer than nine points after that. Chaminade had a seemingly comfortable 18-point lead, 62-44, with 7:59 remaining.

But Dominican made one last rally. A 3-pointer by Jarred Pengel then a Clark basket and a 3-pointer by Lewis suddenly pulled the Penguins within eight points, 68-60, with 3:46 to go. But a Pengel 3-point attempt with 2:57 to go that would have cut the lead to five fell short.

“We had some energy, but we were missing it in the first half,” Harris said. “You can't get off to slow starts, especially at home. You can't make excuses. You have to be ready to go when the ball is thrown up.”

The Penguins' next PacWest contest will be a home game on Monday against BYU-Hawaii, the defending national runners-up in NCAA Division II men's basketball. The first 200 Dominican students with a valid Penguin Pass to enter the Conlan Center for Monday night's doubleheader will receive a free “Ice Box” T-shirt. They also will be eligible for a raffle and free prizes during the games. Students must be wearing an “Ice Box” T-shirt and be present to win. Doors open at 5:00 p.m. for the women's game and the men's game is slated to tip off at 7:30 p.m. The games will also be broadcast live at www.dominicanathletics.com/livevideo and http://radio.dominican.edu.